The Wasteland Seven
by Mr. Malvo
Summary: A Pastor, a barman, a bounty hunter, a fighter, a techie, an outcast, and a former Legionary are recruited by Sunny Smiles to help save Goodsprings from a tyrant and his army who wants only to bleed them dry. Leading to a fight that will leave more than it's share of blood on the ground. Contains mostly original characters, but a couple from the games will pop up.
1. Goodsprings

It's just another day for this quiet little town. This little town, much like it's people, is simple and decent. Many would say it's far too decent for it's own good. Especially in this age. An age of dog eat dog. Survival of the fittest. A world where the strong thrive and the weak are crushed. But every once in a while, someone comes along. A Lone Wanderer, a Courier, a Sole Survivor. Someone who sees the weak and remembers that old passage. "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. "

* * *

The town of Goodsprings has always been a place filled with mostly decent people. And in the years following The Second Battle for Hoover Dam, the town saw itself grow in population, wealth, and just overall size. Upon entering, to the right you'd find the saloon and across from it a new hotel/whorehouse(much to the town Mayor's dislike), next to the saloon was the Goodsprings general store, which had expanded greatly, and across from that, the town jail/new sheriff's office. Next to the general store was Doc Mitchell's new medical clinic and across from that, an honest to God restaurant that sold nothing fancy, but foods that were simple, cheap, and healthy. Next to the medical clinic was a new church with steeple that housed a new bell and across from that was a general scrap shop. This was the main street. At the end of this, there had been a hill, but with the help of Easy Pete and a seemingly endless supply of dynamite the hill, along with Doc Mitchell's old house( he had been built a brand new one in the residential area along with everyone else), had been removed and in their place was a large new office. The Mayor's office. Three two story buildings built right next to each other. A Mojave express in the building on the right, the Mayor's office and living quarters in the middle, and an office for bounties and other job postings.

It's people were at a loss as to why so suddenly others came flocking to their humble little home. Only when those people coming in mentioned The Courier did they understand. While Trudy wasn't really sure she approved of The Courier kicking out the whole of the NCR and declaring herself the Ruler of the Mojave, she did appreciate the woman's sentiments. They had saved her life, so she had spread word that there was a little town with the potential to be much more.

And so the town grew and grew and grew. More people, more food, more buildings, more trade, more caps. While not a metropolis by any means, it did grow into a very successful settlement. It had all been going well, until one day it drew some attention the people didn't want.

It started friendly enough at first.

He came on the first day wearing a black old world suit and sunglasses, with caps to spend and a smile that won everyone he met over in seconds. Everyone except Trudy, who eyed him suspiciously but said nothing, fearing that maybe she was just being paranoid.

Malcolm Calvera, he called himself. And week after week he came into town. Spending caps at the saloon, dancing with the locals, leading them in song and drink. Even Trudy with her suspicions couldn't have seen what was coming. It happened so gradually, no one could believe it.

One night he came in with a friend. Then he came with another. And another. And another. One night he and his friends fought off a group of Powder Gangers to the cheers and applause of the whole town. That was the first time he spent the night in Goodsprings. The next day he offered a proposal to the people of Goodsprings, fair pay for protection from attacks like this. Before Trudy could even raise a hand, the town had unanimously agreed.

To Calvera's credit, the pay had been fair. At first. Over time the price was raised, from caps, to caps and supplies, caps, supplies, and food. To caps, supplies, food, and armor. And finally one day, everything. And on that day, he had come with not just a few friends, but an honest to God army. Well over two hundred men and women. All armed to the teeth. With weapons nobody in the town had ever seen. Calvera teased that this was only a portion of what he could do if they tried anything.

By the time Calvera had made his announcement the people of Goodsprings were in no position to refuse.

He had strode in, surrounded by his 12 of his armed guards, all clad in black armor and carrying laser rifles and automatic rifles the people of Goodsprings had never seen before. All except one that stood out in particular. A red headed woman with a pony tail, strode right next to Malcolm. Wearing dark sunglasses and a long black trench coat that almost hit her feet, and black boots. Trudy felt herself sweat just looking at her. Nothing seemed to phase her. The heat certainly didn't bother her. She had a fancy assault rifle the rest of them carried, along with two 357 Magnums. No longer did Calvera shake hands, wave, give hugs, or toss a cap or two at some of the local children. And no longer did anyone flock to him. Instead they kept a wide berth. The only thing that stayed the same was his smile. Although no longer did anyone find that charming. As he made his way down the main street to the saloon where Trudy kept her office, he eyed the people. And was subsequently amused at the way they shrunk back into whatever building they had been standing by.

Trudy stood outside her office at the end of the main street, arms crossed with a wagon by her side, full of the stuff they now owed Malcolm for his "protection."

"Hello there, Ms. Trudy," he began. He took her hand and kissed it. She had to try very hard to hold in her revulsion. "Looking as lovely as ever. Have you done something new with the bar? I love it!"

"There's your stuff, Malcolm," Trudy said in a deadpan tone while gesturing to the wagon,"just take it and leave, if you please."

He raised his eyebrows behind his sunglasses, amused,"Oh, come on now, Trudy. No need to be like that. We're gonna be partners for a very long time," he motioned at the mercenaries at his side to grab the wagon,"might as well get along."

Trudy scoffed, "You got some nerve."

He winked at her, "Yes, I do, Ma'am," he turned to his men, "all right boys, Lydia lets pack it up and head out."

The red headed woman stepped up to Trudy and just stared. Stared right through her sunglasses and seemingly through Trudy. She doesn't say a word, but her message comes across loud and clear.

"Lydia," Calvera calls back, "lets get outta here."

She steps away from Trudy and goes to follow her master.

Two of them dragged the wagon behind Calvera while the rest stayed at his sides. He glanced at both sides of the street, looking inside the windows for anyone watching. He had just turned his head to look when one his men screamed.

"Dynamite!"

Malcolm jumped behind the wagon in an instant, Lydia covering him as he went, and his men scattered. He crawled away trying to get as far from the explosion as he could. He crawled for several more seconds before he finally stopped and covered his head with his arms. Lydia over him, shielding his body with her's. He braced for the explosion and then...nothing. He looked behind him at the wagon. He waited a few more seconds and stood up slowly, Lydia helping him.. He crouched behind the wagon and peaked over it, eyeing the dynamite. He nodded at Lydia in thanks.

"Fucking dud," he said, he stood up, still not taking his eyes off it. He turned to his guards, "Get up!" They did. He turned to the townspeople in the shops,"Who threw this?! Huh?!" Nobody answered. "Oh it just fell out of the fucking sky, did it? Nah," he motioned at Lydia and pulled out his gun, a modded .45 caliber version of common 9mm pistol found in the Mojave Wasteland,"pull somebody outta one of the stores and bring 'em out here. Now." She nodded and headed towards one of the stores.

Trudy made her way to Calvera with Sunny Smiles right behind her, "Malcolm, please."

He held his hand up, "I tried to be nice, now stay back or it's gonna be you."

Sunny tried to make a move, but Trudy held her back, shaking her head. Inside the store a woman was screaming and a commotion was heard. Trudy cursed under her breath, in disbelief at all that was happening. After a moment, woman with the red hair came out and who she had made Trudy's heart sink.

It was a small boy, no more than maybe 10 years old. The boy's mother right behind him screaming as another man held her back. The boy was crying. Lydia was holding him up with one arm.

Even Calvera had his mouth open in disbelief,"Jesus," he said," a kid?"

Trudy felt her hopes go up, maybe he wasn't a complete monster.

"Want me to get someone else?" Lydia asked.

Calvera looked around, "No, it's fine. Give him here." She put the boy down and Malcolm grabbed him by the back of his shirt, pulling the boy to him. "What's you name?"

Trudy is about to step forward as the boy says his name when suddenly a voice cries out, "All right, there's no need for that!" Despite how loud the shout is, the voice is surprisingly even.

Everyone turns to see an old man in a prospector's outfit shuffling towards them from a building. For the second time today, Trudy's heart sinks into her stomach.

"It was me," says Easy Pete, "now you let that boy go."

"Damn, old man," says Calvera as he lets the boy run off," totally killed the mood here. I had a sinister countdown prepared and everything." He scratches his head with his gun, his finger still on the trigger.

Easy Pete gets closer as the town watches,"Well, no need for that either, Mister. You can just shoot me and be done with it."

Trudy moves forward, "Pete, please-"

Pete holds his hand up,"It's okay, Trudy."

"Yeah, Trudy," says Calvera," it's okay."And in one swift movement he lifts his gun and shoots Pete in the chest. The townspeople drown out Trudy's scream with their own as Malcolm starts barking orders," You two, get the wagon moving. The rest of you keep an eye on them. Anyone moves towards us, shoot them!" And to Trudy's horror he makes his way over to Pete, who is on the floor groaning and writhing in pain. "You stay with me, old man," Calvera says as he grabs hold of Pete,"you're gonna want to stay alive for this one." And he starts to drag Pete to the center of the street.

Sunny is about to let go of Trudy and fire at Malcolm when someone else beats her to it.

The bullet hits him square in the back, but instead of crumpling over he just keeps dragging Pete. If anything he treats it like a minor annoyance. He doesn't bleed. A bit of the suit peels back and reveals a fiber underneath. Something bulletproof and pliable.

"Fire, you idiots! Lydia, do the thing!" He yells. And his guards do as they're told. The fire wildly into the crowds of people on both sides of the street. Some people charge at his red headed body guard but she cuts them down in seconds moving with unbelievable speed and precision. Pink mist exits the back of people's heads every time she pulls the trigger on her assault rifle. People fall over and some fire back. None hitting their marks. Sunny grabs Trudy and brings her down to the ground keeping her covered. The guards only fire for a few seconds but it goes on for what feels like hours. By the time it's done, seven people are dead. Finally Calvera stops dragging Pete and looks up. "Everybody pay attention!" He yells as he starts walking away motioning for the guards to come follow him. When they're far enough away, he stops and speaks again, "I'll be back in three weeks! Have more of my stuff ready! I'm gonna have some of my boys stay here and keep an eye on you! But in case that isn't enough, some more are coming tomorrow. Aand, if that isn't enough, I got one more thing to say. So, listen closely!" He pulls out his gun and aims. And with horror everyone realizes what he's shooting at.

"Trudy, Sunny..." is the last thing Pete says before the bullet hits the dynamite next to him.

* * *

The saloon is in an uproar. Not a word can be heard clearly. Most people have stayed home, but there are enough in the saloon who want to talk things over. People shouting over each other desperate to be heard. Finally, Sunny fires a round.

"I understand that we're all upset, but nothing will be solved if no one can hear a fucking word being said!" Cheyenne barks, backing Sunny up. Sunny nods at her dog in thanks. "Now," she continues,"Trudy has the floor." She waves Trudy over, who steps up in front of everyone sitting down.

She is as nervous as she's ever been. She had liked it better when she was their leader unofficially, less chance of being looked to in an emergency. But when the town had grown to the state it had, being unofficial wasn't going to be possible anymore. Sunny had nominated her instantly, much to her dismay and the town had agreed. She was flattered at the time, but now she'd rather have been anywhere else.

Trudy clears her throat, fighting back tears, "Now, we can argue all day. We can shout all day. But that's not going to solve the problem. We have to actually do something."

"Like what?!" A familiar voice shouts. The familiar whine can only belong to Chet. A weapons and armor merchant who had been here even before The Courier had arrived. "What exactly are we supposed to do, Trudy?!"

"If you'd allow me to finish," Trudy says sharply," I will tell you. Now, I have no intention of giving that murderous son of a bitch one more thing," she straightens up,"we don't have the manpower or firepower or training or anything to do anything ourselves. But, we do have enough caps and other things to trade to hire people who can."

Another panicked citizen stands up, "But that's all supposed to go to Mr. Calvera! He's supposed to be back in three weeks! And he's left his guards here. What happens if we don't have what we owe him because we gave it to someone else or if he finds out what we're doing?!"

"And on top of that, he has an army! Who is going to want to fight against those odds?!"

"What choice do we have?!" Sunny exclaims.

"Then he kills us," Trudy says plainly, "and honestly I don't know about the rest of you, but I'd rather die than live my life in servitude to him."

"Goddamn right!" Sunny says.

The crowd stays quiet for a moment and Chet is about to complain again when someone says, "Hell yeah!"

"Fuck Malcolm!"

"Let's do this!"

"For Pete!"

And everyone starts nodding and affirming their next move.

"All right," Trudy says, wiping a tear away,"any ideas of where we should look? Or who we should send?"

Sunny steps forward, "I will. And I know exactly where to go."

Trudy looks incredulous, "Oh really? And where's that?"

Sunny smacks her forehead mockingly, "It's obvious. We go to Vegas! The Courier can help us!"


	2. The Pastor and The Barman

"I can't believe this Goddamn heat." The blonde woman in the Pastor Vestments says. Behind her is a big Mister Gutsy on treads of her own design packed to the brim with her things. "How about you, T?"

"I'm not programmed to feel discomfort." A deep robotic voice says.

She takes off her brown fedora and sunglasses and wipes her forehead sweat off, "Of course you're not. My mistake." She had neglected to give the robot a personality as she was just using it to carry her stuff around. Sometimes she regretted it, but it was a small price to pay for having what was essentially a big robotic pack mule with a minigun and missile launcher. She pulls out a pack of some purified water, drinking some of it, and pouring the rest of it on her face and running it through her longer than normal hair, before putting her sunglasses back on.

She brings up her Pip-boy forgetting momentarily that she doesn't have a map of this area yet on her device. Every where she had been through, throughout the States she had been able to find a computer somewhere to update it relatively quickly, except for out here. The people in Novac had told her that if she just kept north she could get to Vegas and maybe find someone there who could update her Pip-boy for her. She can already see it in the distance, the big buildings looking closer from where she is. But she figures it's still early in the day and if she hustles, she can get there before dark. And hopefully find a place to stash T in the meantime. She hadn't been in the Mojave wasteland for long, but much like The Commonwealth, there wasn't a shortage of people out here who would stab you for anything you had on you.

"Same old shit, different coast." She said. She stopped at a place called the Grub 'n Gulp before making her way into Vegas.

* * *

Sunny had managed to sneak out before dawn the day before. She had moved as fast she could with Cheyenne, the sooner she got to Vegas the sooner she could find someone to help. She didn't know what the guards would do if they noticed she was gone, but she didn't want to think about that. It killed her to leave everyone there, and she felt the pressure. If she didn't find anyone willing to help, then they were all screwed. She spots what she thinks is the entrance to New Vegas and it's enough to distract her from her nervous stupor.

* * *

Shortly after The Battle of Hoover Dam, The Courier had walked into the slums called Freeside and negotiated with the locals. The Kings had been well acquainted The Courier as she had helped them out on various occasions. With their blessing, she had ordered securitrons into Freeside to help make peace with the locals, only allowing the securitrons to go attended by a King. Her charisma and connections with the rest of the Mojave Wasteland mixed with the trust of The Kings had helped her transform Freeside into another section of New Vegas. One of the conditions being that the Securitrons only guard the North Gate, but that there be actual people guarding all the establishments and gates into Freeside. The only time Securitrons would come into Freeside would be an extreme emergency. Within years it had become a bustling trade hub. A giant marketplace was the source of most of the local economy. New businesses had opened almost overnight. The streets were transformed from a slum, to it's own settlement. Freeside wasn't just a place for junkies and psychopaths anymore. Lights shined through the night, people gambled in multiple smaller casinos, drank in the new bars, danced in the new clubs, and ate in the new restaurants. While not openly connected to the North Gate, as that was still a little too expensive for the people of Freeside, it had become it's own place for people to visit and live in. And it thrived.

* * *

Entering Freeside had not been what Sunny was expecting. While the guards had asked about what she was doing in New Vegas, it wasn't overly intrusive or all that intimidating. They reminded her that she was allowed her weapon and dog, but not to start any trouble.

"Standard Wasteland rules," one of the guards said, "don't shoot anyone unless they start trouble with you." He looked down at Cheyenne. "How trained is your dog?"

"She does what she's told." Sunny replied.

"Good, keep her on a short leash. Go on through. Enjoy your stay."

Sunny nodded and walked through the gate.

* * *

Not a few moments before Sunny and Cheyenne had arrived, The Pastor had gotten through the gate and into Freeside itself. She didn't know what to expect when entering, but it hadn't been this. She wasn't sure anything she had seen came close to how alive Diamond City back in the Commonwealth was, but this was pretty damn close. It must have been a busy day, because everywhere she looked she saw crowds of people. Gathering at the stalls selling their wares or entering and exiting some of the buildings. The buildings themselves may not all have been that high tech, but they were mostly impressive. Some had big neon signs and some were just boards with the names painted on. But they all looked full and lively. She wandered through the crowds eyeing the stalls with people calling out their wares and the big stores, casinos, restaurants, and bars behind them. One particular shop stood out to her. This was one of the ones with a big neon sign, but it had a relatively short name compared to everywhere else. Marv's. It stood out to her because it looked a lot more extravagant and expensive than everywhere else around it.

"Maybe a good place to get some work." She said to herself. She looked ahead to the big bright buildings not too far ahead. These looked like proper Vegas. The one she had visited before the war. And a sad pang hit her stomach. Memories assaulted her quicker than she could put them away. Memories of Nate. Before they had gotten married. Before they had...memories of winning big at a black jack table and spending the rest of the night celebrating and drinking the night away. Staying up till 7:00 AM and sleeping till three in the afternoon, being late for their checkout and having to pay extra before going back home. She shook her head as if to rid herself of the thoughts. "Enough of that," she said to herself," what do I need?" She tried to run down her mental check list, but the memories stayed. Jabbing at her painfully. "Oh fuck it," she said walking towards a man who looked kind enough, "excuse me, know where I can get a good drink around here?"

The man nodded, "Why of course," he pointed to his left,"See the place next to Marv's? It's called Wanderers, the bartender there knows what he's doing. He'll get you sorted out," he eyed her up and down noticing the outfit,"didn't know you religious types drank."

She mentally kicked herself for that one, "Not that kind of religious."

The man shrugged," Oh, bartender's name is Tuco, tell him Tommy sent you and your first drink is free."

"Oh shit," she said before she could stop herself,"thanks a lot, stranger." The man nodded and walked away. "Welp," she said, "Guess I know where I'll be for a while." And she made her way to the bar.

* * *

Sunny Smiles hadn't even been in Vegas one hour and already she was in The Lucky 38, about to meet the Head Honcho herself.

Ten minutes in Freeside and someone had walked up to her, informing her that she was to pass through the gate into the Strip into The Lucky 38. When she had attempted to ask what this was all about, this woman, in her cowboy hat had simply said, "Don't worry about it, hun. Nothin' shifty goin' on here. Just an old friend who wants to see you." And all at once Sunny understood. And before she could stop herself, she found herself smiling.

"You mean-" was as far as she had gotten before the woman in front of her shushed her.

"Enough of that," she said, "just follow me." And so Sunny did.

So twenty-seven minutes after she had entered Freeside, Sunny was now standing in the Penthouse suite of The Lucky 38. She stood at the window marveling with Cheyenne right next to her. She had never been so high up anywhere in her life. Once that fact dawned on her, she started to back up a little. Suddenly not so comfortable with the idea.

"Really something isn't it?" She heard behind her.

Sunny turned around and took in who was standing in front of her.

The Courier stood there, her long dark hair an undone mess, a red silk robe, a white t-shirt, some jeans, and some soft blue things over her socks that Sunny didn't really have a name for. Much like the person standing before her. She wore glasses, one of the lenses blacked out to cover her missing left eye. A long scar can be seen across her left cheek.

"Six?" Sunny uttered without being able to stop herself. And before she could move forward Cheyenne had made her way to the enigmatic woman Sunny and Goodsprings called a friend.

Six got to her knees to hug and pet the dog in front of her, "Cheyenne, did you come all the way to see me?!"

Sunny couldn't help smile at the sight. It had been so long since they had seen each other, and Cheyenne LOVED Six. She let them stay like that for a moment, with the Courier petting and baby talking to Cheyenne, like she had many times before the Battle for Hoover Dam. It almost made Sunny forget that this woman was basically the Ruler of the Mojave Wasteland. Sunny made her way over, "It's good to see you."

Six looked up and stood, meeting Sunny's gaze at eye level. Before Sunny could process what was happening, the Courier wrapped her up in a big hug. Sunny returned the embrace, it hitting her all at once how much she had missed her friend, "Oh, God. Sunny, it's been too long." She let go and stood back, wiping her eye.

"You big baby." Sunny said jokingly.

"Oh shut it, Smiles," Six said, playfully hitting her on the arm,"You want a drink?"

"Oh, hell yes."

The Courier led her over to the bar, "So, what brings you to my stretch of the Wasteland? Didn't figure you'd ever leave Goodsprings." She grabbed to glasses and searched for a bottle behind the bar.

Sunny sat down at one of the stools, "It's a long, sad, fucked up story."

Six looked up from behind the bar, "Should I get the good stuff?"

Sunny nodded.

Six found what she was looking for and poured it into the glasses."First," she said as she raised her glass,"here's to you." They clinked their glasses together and downed them at once. The whiskey doing it's work and washing through them. Warming them up and steadying their nerves. "So," The Courier said," what's going on?" Sunny sighed and told the story.

When it was all over, they were four drinks in and still as sober as when they started. "And now," Sunny said," here I am."

"Shit," Six said, taking another sip of her drink, "Pete's dead?"

"Dead as dead can be...fuck. Look, I know you're busy, being the Queen of the Wasteland," Sunny said while motioning behind her, she didn't catch Six's pained expression at the title," but is there anyway you can come back with me? Help us deal with it?"

Six took a deep breath and exhaled, it looked like she was in pain. "I'm sorry. I can't."

* * *

Tuco had done a marvelous job so far. Seeing as how she was four drinks in and no longer thinking about old times. "I don't know what this is," she said holding the glass up to the barman,"but it is wonderful." She said taking another sip.

"Well," Tuco said,"so honored to have the blessing of a woman of the cloth." His light Mexican accent

She finished her drink,"As you should be. Go in peace, my son." She said as she crossed him with her hand. They both laughed.

She hadn't known him very long, but she already liked him. Tuco was a jovial sort. Not a big man, by any measure, but not small either. He looked like he could take care of himself if it came down to it, but he didn't seem violent by nature. Just about average height. He had a military haircut, his sides shaved and the top cut short. He had a stubble, he hadn't shaved in a day or so. Or maybe he just hadn't that morning. He wore what looked like a grey mechanic jumpsuit. Fitting with the theme of old world cars and bikes in his bar. He had greeted her with a big smile on his face, he had been endlessly amused by her choice of attire. Claiming that she had been the first church goer to enter his fine establishment. "Isn't it against the rules for women to be Priests or Preachers or whatever?" He had said, testing her sensibilities.

"Hell yeah!" She had replied," But in the Wasteland, there are no rules. You should know that, my son!"

He laughed a big infectious laugh, "I'll drink to that!" And they each downed their drinks. "So," he said as he poured her another,"what brings you way from wherever you came from?"

She took the drink and sighed,"That is a long, sad, fucked up story, Tuco. Probably just like everyone else I imagine."

"Yeah," he said leaning on the bar," but everyone else doesn't walk in wearing a Pastor's vestments."

She raised her drink, but didn't put it to her mouth,"I'll grant you that, I'm sure I'm dressed a little out of the ordinary."

"And that's saying something," Tuco replied," we're in Vegas." They both laughed at that. He was about to ask her a follow up question when someone to his right pounded on the bar.

"Tuco," a man said slurring,"when you're done flirting with the priest over here, can you pour me another one?"

The barman rolled his eyes, "Excuse me," he said to her under his breath and walked over to a skinny jittery man three chairs down," Randy I think you've had enough. And I've let you drink without paying enough. Go home."

Randy looked up at Tuco, a worried look on his face,"You know why I can't go home."

Tuco leaned in close to him, and though he couldn't see her, the Pastor was straining to listen in,"It ain't my fault you owe The Kings. I let you stay any longer and you'll pull me into trouble right along with you. Man up, get out there, and deal with it before I kick you out." Behind them the door to the bar opened

Suddenly she couldn't help herself and looked over. Luckily they were both concentrating on each other pretty hard. Tuco's jovial nature had vanished from his face and Randy's had a dangerous desperation to it. They looked at each other for a good long moment, or at least it felt like it, before finally Randy nodded solemnly, put his drink down, and headed towards the door.

Randy really was ready and willing to face the music. He had been for all of five seconds until he saw who was in the process of sitting down next to the odd woman in the religious clothes. It was Lilly, The King's new young bride. Before he could stop himself, he gasped. She heard it and turned in his direction. Recognition hit her face, she was in the process of saying a curse when without even knowing he was doing it, Randy pulled a knife out of his back pocket.

* * *

Sunny was miserable and she felt thirsty and a headache coming on, a result of drinking enough to feel slightly buzzed but not enough to actually get drunk. She was pissed, too. Goodsprings had opened it's doors to her, helped her, and at various times before the Battle for Hoover Dam, been a hideout for Six when she needed it. And how did she repay them? With some pity caps and a fancy gun. Six had offered her a room in the 38 to rest up, but Sunny had denied it. She didn't want anything else from her. Right now all she wanted was a good stiff drink. Some older guy had told her to head down to a place called Wanderers next to the big neon sign of a place called Marv's. Cheyenne walked next to her, just as sad as her owner. Whining now and then. "I know, girl," Sunny said,"if an actual friend can't help us, how the hell are we gonna find anyone else that will?" Cheyenne nuzzled up next to her, trying to give her some comfort. Sunny was about to kneel down and pet her when she noticed something of a crowd outside the place next to Marv's. She guessed it was Wanderers, but couldn't read the sign.

She ran up to the crowd and pushed her way through it to the door, which was swung open, she could see inside. A guy was holding a woman in a pretty looking dress hostage while another guy stood behind the bar staying perfectly still and a woman in strange clothing talked as calmly as she could. Sunny turned to a woman in the crowd,"What the hell's going on?" She asked.

The woman turned to her,"Randy, the one with the knife, just took The King's new bride hostage. He told Tuco not to move a muscle on account of the gun he keeps behind the bar, and that Pastor lady is trying to talk him down."

"Jesus," Sunny said, although she wanted to know who The King was, she felt it best not to ask.

"I know," the other woman said,"he's lucky he knew about Tuco's shotgun under the bar, that boy is crazy accurate, but you can't be that accurate with something like that."

Sunny's interest was piqued,"How accurate is he with anything else?"

"Very. Once saw him gun down someone who refused to pay their tab, he had almost made it to The Strip's entrance by the time Tuco pulled the trigger. That guy didn't even die."

"Wow," Sunny said,"what about the other one, you know anything about her?"

The woman shook her head,"Today's the first time I've seen her. Real peculiar, though. Kinda sticks out."

Sunny nodded in agreement. She was peculiar. Despite how crazy this whole situation was, she seemed perfectly calm and in control. Tuco was keeping his shit together, but she could tell he was freaking out internally. Randy and the girl he had hostage seemed to be the only ones actually panicking at the moment.

He was backing up slowly but surely and the Pastor was following every step of the way. Sunny very quietly peeked around the door to see where he was going. From where she was at the door, she was directly to the barman's left, though he was some feet away. She racked her brain to see if there was anything she could do. On the opposite end of the the room, where Tuco was looking, Randy was inching into what looked like a closet. Who knew what the hell he was going to do in there? He'd be completely trapped.

Sunny then remembered the gun Six had given her. It was this odd looking revolver, Six had called it That Gun. She pulled it out of the bag Six had given her and tried to make a plan. She watched as Randy entered that closet. She got down on her hands and knees and crawled towards Tuco, going behind the bar. She had gotten very close before he finally noticed.

He looked down and then back up,"Who are you and what the hell are you doing?" He whispered sharply.

"Here to help." She whispered back.

"How?"

"I hear you're accurate," she saw the shotgun in front of him under the bar," can't be all that accurate with that, though."

"I am and I can't" he said," what's the point and how can you help?"

"With this," she said, pulling out That Gun and showing it to him,"think you can handle it?"

"Yeah," he whispered," she needs to get him out of that closet, though. I don't know what she's thinking letting him in."

"Well, I guess that's up to her."

* * *

The closet they had stepped into was a lot like the storage closet she had back before the war. Only when you walked in, you had to move to your left to grab anything, as that's where all the space was. She made sure to keep the door open so that Tuco could keep an eye on her. She looked to her left and saw him nod down at something. He pulled a gun out of nowhere and aimed it in her direction. She knew what she had to do.

"Look Randy, I know you're scared and desperate, we've all been there. But taking The King's wife hostage isn't gonna help your case." She had no idea who The King was or why he was so important, but she had heard Tuco mention it when this had all started and it seemed to bring Randy back from time to time.

"You ain't helping either, lady! Stay back!" He said as he pulled the knife away from Lilly's neck and aimed it at the other woman's direction.

"Look. I don't know either of you. But I know neither of you want to be here, hell I don't want to be here. I just wanted to be at the bar enjoying my drink. But I'm here because this wrong. What you're doing is wrong, Randy!"

He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment and in that instant she saw a container on a shelf to her left positioned just above Randy's head. The shelf ran all the way across to where she was standing. It didn't look bolted on, but just a piece of wood place on some metal columns. If she could pull it down while he was distracted, he'd be off balance enough to get Lilly free.

"It's okay, Randy," she said slowly moving her arm over, trying to make it look like she was going to casually lean on it,"You're young. You've made mistakes. Big ones, but you can come back from it."

He grimaced, and looked like he was on the verge of tears.

"But this is all reversible. No one's been hurt yet," she placed her hand on the shelf," you can still do the right thing." She made her voice soft and motherly. As she painfully knew she could do.

Tears welled up in Randy's eyes his vision cloudy.

"It's okay, kid," she said,"it's okay."

He clenched his eyes and moved to wipe his tears with the knife in his hand. That's when she made her move.

* * *

From where they were standing they just saw her move forward and disappear. They heard Lilly scream and a commotion. Tuco took a breath and let it out, getting ready, but being careful not to shoot the wrong person.

"Run, Lilly!" They heard from inside. Tuco knew that was a warning meant for him and didn't fire when Lilly ran out screaming.

There was a scuffle, things were clanging around inside. They heard grunts and straining. Randy screamed and sobbed. Yelling that it was all her fault. They heard one big effort and he hit the wall becoming visible. Before he could turn his head all the way Tuco pulled the trigger and splattered his brains on the wall behind him.

"Preacher!" He called out as he jumped the bar and made his way to the closet with Sunny right behind him, "You alive?!" Upon closer inspection they could actually see the knife stuck on the right side of Randy's chest.

A hand appeared as the Pastor pulled herself out. "Yeah, I'm fine," she dug in her pocket," think my sunglasses are broken though." She looked at Sunny. "Who are you?"

They both look to Sunny and she straightens up. "My name's Sunny Smiles," she catches their quizzical looks,"yeah I know. and I just want to know, you two aren't looking for work by any chance are you?"


	3. The Fighter and The Tech

They were all sitting around a table in the now empty bar as Sunny explained her situation. Tuco had closed it early for the day and emptied it out. Putting the deadbolts on the door and pulling out a bottle of The Real Good Stuff for all of them to drink. Between what had happened with Randy and Sunny's troubles, they all could use some of his special concoction. Cheyenne had already taken a liking to The Pastor. Happy to let the mysterious woman pet her while she listened to Sunny's story. The growth of Goodsprings, the arrival of Calvera, the false sense of security he had lulled them into, and how in what seemed like an instant, he had gone from extortionist to murderer and dictator.

"Right before he left town," Sunny said, "an old prospector-"

"I'm sorry," The Pastor interjected," what's a prospector?"

"Just a nicer Old World word for scavenger," Tuco said, "they poke around looking for anything useful."

"I'm sorry, can I finish?" Sunny said, annoyed.

"Sorry," replied The Pastor, "I'm new to the area still getting my bearings. Go on. I won't interrupt again."

Sunny took a breath and a sip of her drink,"It's okay. Well anyway. Before Calvera left last time, an old prospector named Pete tried to end our problems for us. He wasn't a violent man, and his days of prospecting were over, he just wanted us to live in peace!" She paused, clearing her throat,"Well, as Calvera was leaving town Pete threw a stick of dynamite at him, but it didn't go off. Bad fuse or something. Calvera, that son of a bitch, pulled a boy out of a store and was ready to kill him before Pete revealed himself."

"Jesus." Tuco said as he downed more of his drink.

"He shot Pete," Sunny continued, trying not to let herself choke up," but didn't kill him right away. He dragged him over to where the dynamite had landed and once he was far enough away he..." she didn't finish. She didn't let herself full on cry but some tears did fall. Cheyenne took notice and went away from The Pastor and straight to Sunny's side. While Tuco gave her some more of his special whiskey to drink. She took it, nodding a thanks and drinking some. She wiped her eyes and continued, "Anyway, so here I am. Looking people willing to risk their lives so they can help us take on a psychopath and his army."

Tuco turned his gaze to The Pastor, who was sitting there mulling this all over. She was clearly of two minds on this matter. But he couldn't tell whether she would agree to this whole thing.

"Look," she started," I want to help, I really do. But I came out here to get away from this kind of thing. Though, now that I think about it that was probably a bit naive," she scoffed to herself and took another sip of her whiskey, enjoying the warm sensation,"So," she said standing up," I-"

Sunny grabbed her hand, "Please, I've already been turned away by someone I considered a friend, I can pay you. We all can! Just-"

"Whoa!" Said The Pastor, slightly taken aback by this whole display," no need for that. Seems like you people will need all the help you can get rebuilding once this is all done. I'm in."

Sunny leaned back and breathed a big sigh of relief, "Oh, thank Christ!" She turned to Tuco, "What about you? You're pretty good shot, could use you for sure."

Tuco rubbed the back of his head,"I don't know..."

"Oh, come on, barman," Pastor said, "it's better than being cooped up in here and getting out of practice." She smiled a half smile. That salesman smile she had used so many times before, even back before everything when she was a lawyer.

Tuco smirked back,"Fine, I'm in!" He turned to Sunny, "Unlike the good Samaritan over here, I will be expecting payment, though!"

"Fine by me!" Sunny agreed quickly.

The Pastor turned to Sunny," Well shit if he's getting paid, I better be, too!"

"Oh! I-" Sunny stuttered.

The Pastor jokingly hit her on the shoulder,"Relax! I'm fucking with you. Now let's finish our drinks and get out there. Gonna need more than just the two of us to help out this town of yours." She picked up her glass and downed it. "Now, let's get moving."

The other two downed their drinks and started to follow. "Wait!" Sunny said.

The Pastor turned and looked at her confused.

"I know Tuco, but we're gonna be at this for while, I'll feel weird just calling you Pastor or Preacher all the time. What's your name?"

"Oh yeah," Tuco said,"never even occurred to me that I don't know what else to call you."

"Huh," she said, furrowing her brow,"weird how that never came up." She stayed quiet for a beat as she watched the two. Waiting. And just before they became impatient, she said,"Morgan," she put her hand out to shake Sunny's. "Name is Morgan. Guess I should start calling you, Boss. Shouldn't I?"

* * *

"All right," Morgan said as they exited the bar. It was darker now, some of the stalls were closing, but the street stayed full of people,"we are gonna need some real good people if we're gonna pull this off. If this is anything like Boston, there'll be people all over we can hire and some we can rope in by getting them to owe us."

"Wait," Tuco said as he locked up his bar. The shotgun from under the counter in a holster on his back, "you're from way the hell out in Boston?"

"What's Boston?" Asked Sunny, looking very much lost.

Morgan rolled her eyes, "That's besides the point. Places like this work the same. But if I know Vegas, the real party starts at night, gets grimier than it does in the daytime, am I right, Tuco?"

He stared at her surprised,"Yeah, how'd you know? You been here before?"

A painful jolt hit her and she shrugged it off, trying to hide it. "Long time ago. Long story. Come on. Tuco, this your town, you tell me where the dangerous types hang out." She said as she started walking.

They made their way through crowds of people. Some walking, some standing at the stalls. Some entranced by the women dancing in front of their respective bars and clubs, trying to get people to come inside.

"Well," he said as he walked behind her, "there's guns for hire all over here in Freeside," he said as he motioned around, "but they're all mostly small time. People you hire to watch your back for a couple of hours while you gamble and drink, but most are unreliable. There used to be the Van Graffs, but they got wiped out. The King might-

"Wait a second." Morgan said as she stopped dead in her tracks looking to her right, almost causing Tuco to run into her. And Sunny almost kept walking ahead with Cheyenne.

He stumbled around her and almost tripped, running into someone who grumbled as he mumbled an apology,"What happened? You can't just stop like that in these crowds."

"Sorry, Tuco," she said half-heartedly," what about in there?" She pointed ahead of her.

Tuco frowned, "Seriously?"

They were looking at a big establishment, the big neon logo showing two sides, and on each, a line of silhouetted people. Some with their fists up like boxers, some with knives, swords, bats, and other types of weapons. The name of the place was Rama's Mojave Fight Night. Underneath in smaller letters was a tagline: From Fists Only to Full on Death Matches!

"Might be just what we need is in there!" Morgan said, almost excitedly.

"Come on," Tuco said skeptically, "there's nothing but brawlers and bloodthirsty maniacs in there. That's not what we need."

"Untrue," Morgan replied, "a brawler or bloodthirsty maniac might just be what we need. One of the toughest people I ever met, I hooked up with in a place just like this. She once helped me take out a Deathclaw and all she had was an aluminum bat with spikes coming out of it."

"Whoa, really?" Said Sunny, suddenly this didn't seem like such a bad idea.

"Oh yeah," Tuco said crossing his arms," and where is she?"

The Pastor shrugged, "Back in Boston where I left her, probably near the bottom of a bottle of alcohol or shagging some Commonwealth hooker. As she often colorfully put it."

"Wait," Sunny said, holding her hands up, "when you said, hooked up, did you mean-"

"Point is," Morgan said quickly, "this is what we need. Now come on." And she began to walk toward the entrance.

Tuco and Sunny looked at each other, with a questioning look in their eyes. Tuco shrugged first and began to follow after her. "Wait!"

Morgan stopped and turned to look at Tuco, "What?"

He pulled out That Gun, "You shouldn't be going inside a spot like this or anywhere else here, really, without a gun. Take it. I like my shotgun more anyway."

She took it from him, appraising it, getting a feel for the weight. Felt good. She twirled it in her hand a couple of times like a cowboy in one of the movies she saw back before the war. Now that she thought about it, something about this whole situation seemed very familiar. This all passed through her mind while she twirled it and threw it up in the air, catching it without looking or even thinking about it. She put it in her holster, "Not bad. Thanks." And they all went inside.

* * *

They had paid the man at the entrance ten caps apiece to get inside. Once inside, Morgan was hit with a big feeling of Deja Vu, this place had almost the exact same set up as The Combat Zone back in The Commonwealth. Only differences being, less raiders, no hostages taken, and instead of a full on cage, it was a round arena in the center, dug in to the ground. Far enough to go over the competitor's heads, but not so far that they couldn't climb out. All the seats were set up around the arena so everyone could get a good look inside at the violence. It was loud in here. To the left of the arena was a band, playing mostly loud, savage, drums. Fast or slower depending on the speed of the fight and the chants of the crowd. To their left was a bookie's station, where people could place bets on the fights going on throughout the night. It was essentially a big cage with a man inside. He had on no shirt, several tattoos, a big mohawk, and some very dignified, fancy, small eyeglasses. Morgan made for it with Tuco, Sunny, and Cheyenne in tow.

"Excuse me there, sir." Morgan said.

"No more bets, for the night." He said quickly, "unless a death match is agreed to all bets are closed."

Morgan clicked her tongue disappointedly, "Well, can you tell me who is fighting tonight? Any repeat competitors?"

"You lookin' for an inside scoop?" He leaned in closer, "Might accidentally let something slip, if you were to drop some caps in here by accident."

Morgan smiled mischievously, passing five into the cage, "Oops."

The man chuckled, "Well right now," he began, "it's Mad Man Marty and Raging Rocky. Up after is The Machine vs Dan the Disciplinarian."

"The Disciplinarian?" Sunny said struggling to hold back laughter. While Tuco rolled his eyes.

Morgan wasn't laughing. Something the bookie said had caught her attention, "Tell me about The Machine."

"Ooh The Machine's real interesting. Ain't been back in a while, some say it may have some ring rust." The Bookie said with a smile.

"You say 'It.' Is The Machine an actual robot? Like an assaultron?" She had seen her fair share of those.

"Naw," The Bookie said, waving the thought away, "The Machine looks plenty human. Doesn't fight like one though. They say it's too efficient to be a human."

"Hmm," Morgan knew what that sounded like, "and how much longer till 'it' is out?" She said, putting up air quotes on the word.

The Bookie shrugged, "Any second now. Marty looks like he's about done with Rocky over there."

"And what are the running odds on The Machine's fight?"

"Can't go that far," the Bookie said, "too late now, let's just say they're very, very much stacked against it. Like I said, K's been outta the game for a good long while. And Dan's on a winning streak."

"I'm sorry, K?"

"The Machine's civilian name. That's all it goes by."

Now her interest was really piqued. "I can respect that," said Morgan, she dropped another 10 caps on the counter, "my. I'm so clumsy today." The bookie winked at her and bid her farewell. She turned back towards Tuco and Sunny.

"Why the hard-on for The Machine?" Tuco asked.

"Just a gut feeling," said Morgan," come on. Let's find some seats, I wanna get a good look."

They found some seats on the second level. It was very crowded, unlike down below right next to the arena. In the arena two very tired fighters were swinging wildly. They were both bloodied and bruised beyond recognition, but somehow still standing. There was blood on the walls of the arena and all over the ground. The people in audience were shouting in what sounded like another language. The drums were going very slowly as they signaled the match's end was near. Morgan and the rest couldn't find any enjoyment in any of this. Tuco, especially looked like he'd rather be anywhere other than here. While Sunny just stroked Cheyenne's fur over and over to distract herself. Down below the one called Mad Man had managed to tackle the other one called Rocky and was now pummeling his face over and over. After a while, Rocky stopped defending himself and a horn went off. Half the crowd erupted in cheers while the other booed and and cursed. Apparently having lost a lot of caps.

"Ladies and Gentleman, your winner! Mad. Man. MMMMMMARTY!" An announcer over a loudspeaker shouted. As people very quickly entered the arena to get the competitors out before the next fight. "And now, your next bout of the evening! A contest of skill and patience!" Some stood up to leave at this, but not everyone. Apparently, some weren't entertained by a match unless it had blood right away. "This event is an old fashioned duel! One round! With the possibility of another going into a death match! The Rules are simple. First to land strikes to a mortal part of the opponent's body is the winner. Should both fighters accept, real weapons will be given and a death match will commence! Introducing first, Your reigning dueling champion!" A man in what looked like an old world dress shirt, vest and pants walked into the arena. His hair well conditioned and looked after. In one hand, he had what looked like a whip and in the other a big, rough looking, wooden practice sword. "Fighting on behalf of Sally's Fine Freeside Dining, The Man who punishes his foes...DAAAAAN The Disciplinaaaaarian!" The ones next to and below Morgan, Sunny, and Tuco erupted into cheers. "And his opponent," the crowd went silent and suddenly many were leaning forward, "After a seven month hiatus! She has returned! Ladies and Gentlemen! THEEEE MAAAAAAACHIINE!" Another side began to cheer as an asian woman stepped into the arena. Dressed far less fancy than Dan. She wore just a black sleeveless shirt that showed off her relatively skinny but toned looking arms. Black combat pants and boots. Her black hair was shaved on the left side and the rest of it was styled to the right. She held her short, more smoothly made, wooden sword resting on her shoulder.

Morgan thought she reminded her a bit of Fahrenheit back in Goodneighbor.

"Huh," Tuco said.

"What?" Sunny asked.

"A name like, The Machine, didn't expect someone so small." Tuco said shrugging.

"It's not the size, right?" Morgan said amused. Tuco gave a short laugh back.

Dan passed his whip to someone above him, possibly his trainer. "Fighters!" The announcer started again, "Are you ready?!" K and Dan nodded. "BEGIN!"

Dan charged forward roaring, expecting K to flinch or shrink back, instead she side stepped him and let him collide into the wall behind her. The crowd exclaimed in surprise and cringed in secondhand embarrassment. He punched against the wall in frustration and turned back to K. She nodded down as if saying, "Come on, then." He nodded back and lunged forward, swinging wildly. She dodged every swing easily, not looking like she was making any real effort to do so. And never once trying to swing back. After a moment she sidestepped him again and pushed into a wall with her foot. The crowd began to laugh, and Morgan thought she could see a faint smirk on the woman's face. She put her arms out, challenging him again. He bared his teeth and took his sword in both hands, he swung hard as if swinging a bat and this time K did attack. She ducked, dodging his swing and returning with her own. Hitting him in the shin of his leg and knocking him down hard, then bringing her own sword down in a stabbing motion on his back, but not hitting him hard. The horn signalling a match's end went off again.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," the voice started up again,"your winner-"

"NOOO!" Dan's voice cried out, loud enough so that everyone heard and succeeding in cutting off the announcer. He stood up, rubbing his shin. "I'm not giving up my title to some descendant of Commie trash!" K didn't look annoyed or offended, just amused. He pointed his weapon at her, "we go for real. To the death! You accept?!"

K looked behind her. Morgan could tell it was someone in the crowd. She leaned over in her seat as far as she could without falling off the edge to see who it was. It was a young man with glasses smoking a cigarette. She couldn't really make out the details of his face.

"Well?!" Dan the Disciplinarian shouted again. The crowd sat quietly in anticipation and the band began a drum roll.

K just stared off at the young man, until finally, almost reluctantly he nodded. He pulled something out from under his seat and threw it at her. The band stopped the drum roll and began to play something slower and more brutal almost in bloodthirsty anticipation. It was a short sword like the wooden one she was using. She caught it. Tossing the fake one back out. Dan looked to be smiling. He tapped on his side as his people handed him his sword.

"Looks like we have a death match!" The voice called out again to loud cheers and whoops. Some of the people who had left before were back in their seats. "We will now open up betting for 30 seconds. Shout if you have a bet to place!" Numbers started to be called out. Thirty, fifty, eighty, one bet went as high as two hundred on Dan.

Bingo. Morgan thought. She stood up and shouted as loud as she could, "Five hundred caps on The Machine!" The entire audience went dead quiet, even the band stopped playing. K looked up at her, brow furrowed and head cocked in confusion. Exactly what Morgan wanted, her attention. The young man in the glasses leaned over almost falling into the arena to get a good look at her, cigarette still in his mouth. Morgan thought she could see him mouth, what the fuck. Dan and his people were staring wide-eyed and mouths agape like idiots.

Tuco gave her a what-the-fuck look while Sunny just looked as confused as ever. No one called any other bets for the rest of the time. After a moment the announcer began again.

"Uh," he cleared his throat, "Th-thank you for your bets Ladies and Gentlemen! Someone will be by to confirm your bets shortly!"

Tuco nudged Morgan, "What the fuck are you thinking?!

Before Morgan could answer, a short pretty woman with pink hair, a high pitched voice, and empty look in her eyes was accosting her. "Hello there, ma'am. You are the one who bet five hundred on K the Machine, yes?"

Morgan nodded.

"Wonderful," Pink hair said with a big smile, "do you have it on you right now?"

"No, not with me at the moment."

Pink hair gave an exaggerated frown, "Oh I was hoping you wouldn't say that! Hold out your hand, please."

Morgan did as she was told, reluctantly. Something about this woman was unsettling and she didn't want to see her angry. Pink hair slapped a thick metal bracelet that beeped when it locked on. Suddenly people around them backed away conspicuously. Morgan gulped, "What's this?"

"Insurance," Pink hair said, never losing the smile, "If K loses, don't try to run. Otherwise this device will blow your fucking arm off."

"What?!" Morgan, Sunny, and Tuco said all at once. Even Cheyenne let out a worried whine.

"Best of luck!" Pink hair said and she sauntered away.

Morgan stared at it. Death locked around her wrist. She looked at Sunny and Tuco and tried to give a confident smile. She hoped it was convincing and that K was what she thought she was.

Down below the young man in K's corner whispered something in her ear. K nodded, he tapped her on the shoulder and made his leave. K and Dan got in their ready positions, real swords in hand.

"FIGHTERS! ARE! YOU! READY?!"

K and Dan nodded.

"BEGIN!"

The drums began again. Playing a loud, brutal, and slow beat. The crowd cheered. Everyone including Morgan, Tuco, and Sunny leaned forward, anxious to see what would happen.

The fight was over before anyone knew what happened. Dan lunged, K sidestepped. Just like before except this time, she took Dan's hand when she did it. An awed sound exploded from the crowd. Dan, not really registering what had just happened, turned looking like he was going to try to punch K. And in one more swift movement, she removed his head. His body fell forward unceremoniously, flopping on the ground.

A silence filled the arena, so quiet, you could hear a pin drop. The band didn't play, the crowd didn't cheer, even the announcer seemed to be stuck in the same shocked silence. Suddenly a noise pierced the air and everyone looked up at the source.

It was Morgan, standing alone with both arms in the air, "That's what I'm talking about!"

* * *

"Congratulations on your winnings! You must be so-" is how far Pink hair got before Morgan was pushing the device right in front of her face.

"Get this thing off my fucking wrist and give me my caps, NOW!" Morgan said.

An insulted emptiness crossed Pink hair's eyes before she resumed smiling, "But of course!" In one swift motion she unlocked the device and then handed Morgan a large satchel full of caps. "Careful not to get murdered for it on the way home!" She gave her cutest smile possible and sauntered off again.

"Is it weird that I thought she was kinda hot?" Asked Tuco somewhat sheepishly.

Sunny and Morgan just looked at him with a mix of disgust and discomfort. "Something really wrong with you." Sunny said.

"Hey, Pastor," a voice behind them said. They turned around and saw K there, in her in-ring attire, only now with a worn out leather jacket on, "We need to talk. Marv's in 20 minutes." And before Morgan could say anything else, she had turned and walked out the door.

Tuco spoke up first, "Sure hope you know what you're doing, Preacher."

"Me too." Sunny agreed.

"Trust me." She replied. And they headed out.

* * *

Eighteen minutes and thirty-seven seconds later, they were outside of Marv's. Along the way, Morgan had explained to Tuco and Sunny what she knew, and what the plan was. They listened, been so shocked that at one point Tuco had been ready to bail on the whole thing, but Morgan had been able to bring him back around. After all, she had been able to back up every bit of that confident vibe gave off. For one reason or another, they trusted her. It had only been a day, and so far she had defused a hostage situation, made them a small fortune, and if she was right, about to get one or two more really strong people for the cause.

"You guys ready?" She asked as they stood in front of the door.

Tuco and Sunny nodded while Cheyenne barked confidently. She took a breath and knocked on the door. Nothing. She knocked again. And after another moment, they heard a lock come undone and a voice came through an intercom.

"Come on in." It was K.

"Okay." Morgan said. And she opened the door and went through, Tuco, Sunny, and Cheyenne following.

The inside of Marv's looked almost like a vault. The walls were made of a thick, mostly clean and unrusted metal, there was a large counter with three big computer monitors, above the counter and on some of the walls were some small automatic turrets. Morgan couldn't tell what they fired. They were inconspicuous like the ones back in the Commonwealth. The floor was made of some black and white, dirty tile. Behind the counter, past the monitors was some state of the art electronic equipment. Some of it even looked like it was Old World. There were plasma and laser rifles and bits and pieces of them strewn in the background on some tables. There were also pieces of various robots. Assaultron, Mister Gutsy, Robobrain, even what looked like some Sentry bot pieces and weapons. Morgan whistled.

"Whoa, " Tuco said impressed.

"I know, right?" Sunny agreed.

K stepped out of a room in the back. Her jacket off. She looked like she had just been running water through her hair, it was damp. "Isaac! They're here!" She called out. Keeping her eyes trained on them. She was suspicious, Morgan knew that much, but how much exactly did she think they knew?

"Coming!" They heard a voice call out. And a few moments later, the young man Morgan had seen at the arena came down some stairs. He had that tan skin everyone in the Mojave Wasteland seemed to have along with some dark and long shaggy hair, not too long, it didn't even cover his ears. His glasses were round and thick rimmed. He wore what looked like Old World army fatigue shirt loosely and some black work pants with various pockets. He walked over to a table and picked up a pack of cigarettes, shaking one out. He put it to his mouth and lit it, "So," he began as he walked over to his chair behind the monitors, "the mysterious Pastor...and friends?" He sat down in his chair and pushed a button. The monitors separated so he could get a good look at them while sitting down.

"Morgan," she said as she pointed to herself, then to Tuco and Sunny, "Tuco, Sunny," and then finally Cheyenne, "Cheyenne." Tuco nodded, Sunny gave a half wave, and Cheyenne barked.

"Isaac," he pointed to himself and then to K," and you know K. Introductions made. So..." He motioned to K.

"Let's talk." She said.

"About what?" Morgan said coyly.

K furrowed her brow in irritated confusion, "About how you just made about five thousand caps off of my winning tonight and how you're going to split that with me and Isaac."

"Oh," Morgan started, mock hitting herself on the head as if she just realized something, "and here I thought we were going to talk about how you won that fight under false pretenses!"

K's jaw tightened, "What false pretenses?"

In the corner of her eye, she saw Isaac putting his cigarette down very slowly, "Oh you know, the false pretenses being that you're human. When in reality, you're a synth."

In an instant just about everyone had a gun drawn. Tuco had his shotgun drawn on Isaac while Isaac had a very heavily modified plasma sniper rifle trained on him. Sunny had her hunting rifle on K while K had her own automatic laser pistol trained on Sunny. Cheyenne was growling. The only one who didn't have their gun trained on anyone was Morgan. She had That Gun out, but it wasn't trained on anyone. She had her hands in the air like someone surrendering and gun hanging harmlessly off her index finger.

"Goddammit, they know, K!" Isaac said with a sharp edge in her voice. "What do we do?"

"Wait," she replied, "think for a second. If they were with Them, we'd have been invaded by now."

Morgan thought for a moment, "Wait, look at my hands. We're not here to turn you in anywhere."

"Then have your friends put their guns down." K said.

"There's no guarantee you won't kill us if they do." Morgan replied.

Isaac sighed, "I'm sure you've noticed the turrets, you shoot us, they go off. So trust me, it's a good idea for you to put your guns down."

"Not happening." Tuco replied quickly.

"Then we're at an impasse." Isaac said.

"Not necessarily," Morgan said, "lets just talk for a minute."

"About what?" K asked incredulously.

"Like why'd you leave The Commonwealth? There was no reason to be scared anymore if you had escaped The Institute."

"What are you talking about?" K asked. "As long as The Institute exists, I'll always have a reason to be scared."

Realization dawned on Morgan, "You don't know..."

"Don't know what?" K asked. "What are you talking about?!" She gripped her gun tighter, resting her finger on the trigger.

"K," Morgan said, then she dropped her gun on the ground, to really hit the point home, "there is no more Institute." She said it softly, in her motherly voice.

K looked her over, stunned. "Bullshit."

"It's not bullshit. I swear."

"How did it happen then? Who did it?"

"Well... I did."

"Come on..."

"No, really. I was in The Railroad. I went undercover. Earned Father's trust. Led a mass rebellion with the synths that wanted to leave. Killed all the scientists..." she paused for a moment as the next painful memory hit her hard. So hard a tear fell from her eye, "I killed Father."

K gasped, she paused for a moment. Stayed quiet a little too long, processing all this.

Isaac looked at her, concerned, "K? You still with me? You buying this?"

She held her free hand up, trying to think. "I knew Father's name." Oh no. "If you got that deep into his inner circle then you knew it, too. What was it? What was Father's name?"

Morgan gasped, took a breath. She hadn't said it in so long. Hadn't thought it in almost a year. The name of the Head of the Institute. Her son's name. She shut her eyes hard. And breathed the name out, "Shaun," she paused, "Shaun," she said louder, "his name was Shaun and I killed him."

K looked her over. Searched for any kind of deception. Any kind of faltering in her expression or eyes. She saw none. Realized Morgan was telling the truth. "Oh fuck," K said, "Its really true," she lowered her weapon, "you must have cared about him."

Morgan lowered her hands, "More than you know."

K nodded, "Isaac, they're good. You can lower the gun."

So he did. Then Sunny and Tuco did as well. They turned to Morgan who was picking up her gun and wiping her eyes with her sleeve. "Yo," Tuco said. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah that looked like it took a lot out of you, you all right?" Sunny asked.

Morgan nodded and waved them off.

"So," K began, she had her hands on her hips, "obviously I owe you more than I can possibly repay. And I seriously doubt you went through all this just to give me the news. So what do you need?"

"Yeah," Isaac said putting his rifle back in it's spot, "you just took a huge weight off our shoulders, so whatever you need. Tech? A place to crash?"

"Not exactly," Morgan said, clearing her throat, "we need you for a suicide mission."

K and Isaac gave each other a look. A silent conversation passing between them. After a moment they looked back at their visitors, "Let's talk." Said K.


	4. The Bounty Hunter

They were behind the counter inside Marv's, all seated at a table. Over the next hour, they all laid the whole thing down to K and Isaac. The job, how they met, and how they had gotten here at their doorstep. Even the the initial trio had to admit how insane it was that they had all known each other for less than a day.

"Christ," Isaac said lighting another cigarette, "you must be exhausted. And in need of some alcohol." He inhaled deep.

They all laughed a bit, "I could sure use a drink," Morgan said.

"Same," said Tuco with a smile.

"Me, too." Said Sunny, with a smile and raising her hand.

"Well, all right," said Isaac, "let me go in the back and grab some glasses and a jug." He put his cigarette down on an ashtray in the middle of the table and stood up, "I'll be right back." He walked out of the room humming something to himself.

"K," Morgan said, getting the Synth's attention, "how did you get out of The Commonwealth without Railroad help before the Institute's destruction?"

K took a breath. Morgan thought back for a second on everything she knew on Synths. Did they need to breathe? Or was that something taught? "Well," K started, "I had an advantage most other Synths didn't have at the time. I was free to leave and come back whenever I needed to."

It dawned on Morgan, "You were a Courser, weren't you?"

K nodded, "That's a bingo," she appraised Morgan, "you really were there." She said almost in wonder, "knowing about Coursers and Father's name? It's almost hard to believe."

"Sorry," Sunny said, interjecting, "what's a Courser?" Tuco leaned in wanting to hear this as well.

K looked to Morgan and back to the others, "A Courser is a special kind of Synth they made. Others were designed to replace people and be spies for the Institute, Coursers could do that, too. But we were mostly designed for killing." She paused, gauging Tuco and Sunny's reactions. Sunny looked intrigued and a little wary, but Tuco just looked fascinated. Morgan on the other hand just listened. "You know those Old World comics you can find lying around," she continued, "with the killer robots that look like people and wear sunglasses all the time?" They nodded, "That's basically what I and other Coursers were. Sunglasses included. Some of us, they didn't even bother trying to make like people, they just spoke in monotone voices and did what they were told. Others, like me, were all about infiltrating, identifying a target, sometimes interrogating, and then executing said target. It helped for me to be able to blend in."

"Shit," Tuco said impressed.

"Whoa," Sunny said almost breathlessly. In awe and also a little nervous. Yesterday she only had to worry about asshole humans and wasteland critters, now there were robots that looked like people.

"Well, I'm glad you're on our team," said Tuco, "wouldn't want to fight someone like you." He looked over in the direction that Isaac had gone in then looked back at K and leaned over to her and whispered, "Hey, I don't want to be the asshole here, but uh, is he any good in a fight?" He said pointing in Isaac's direction.

K looked him dead in the eye, but kept her tone light, "Trust me, we've had our fair share of scuffles, there's no one I'd rather have watching my back. Plus, between my sword and what he can do with all this tech," she said waving her hand around the room, "you'll be glad you brought us along. Besides, wherever I go, he goes."

Tuco took it all in, not breaking the synth's gaze. "All right," he said leaning back, "I'll take your word for it." He looked over at Morgan.

She nodded as well, "You're both in. Absolutely." She turned to Sunny, "You oughta count your blessings, Smiles," she said jovially, "you've gotten four professional killers for free already." Tuco cleared his throat, "well, three professional killers and Tuco." Laughter from all of them echoed throughout the store. It felt like a sweet release. Though it hadn't been long, the time they had known each other had weighed on all of them. It felt nice just to laugh. Just to enjoy a moment. A moment without some kind of danger.

Isaac walked in with a big glass jug filled with a dark, dangerous looking liquid and glasses for everyone. "Whoa, guys," he said with a smile as he put it all down on the table, "what'd I miss?"

"Ah nothing," Sunny said, "just the Pastor over here busting the Bartender's chops."

"Well, what a merry little crew this is shaping up to be," said Isaac as he filled each of their glasses with his whiskey, "we have a spy Pastor," he said as he handed a drink to Morgan who smiled, "a Bartender with a shotgun," he handed it to Tuco, he winked, "a woman who dreams of electric sheep, " to K, who rested her head on his arm for a moment, "me, a tech genius and sharpshooter with a gooifying gun," everyone chuckled, " the dog that'll keep us on the level," he pet Cheyenne, " and you," he said looking at Sunny, "our boss," he handed her a glass, he raised his and motioned to everyone to do the same," here's to doing you proud, Miss Smiles," she smiled and almost let a tear fall at that, "cheers."

"Cheers!" They all echoed and downed their drinks.

Later on, when all this was over. When the shooting stopped and the dust settled, Sunny would look back on this night. The first time she shared a drink with a few of those who fought for her home. And she would smile, smile wide at the memories of them acting like fools together. Telling jokes and stories and catching flirtatious signs some had thrown at each other. She would remember all this. And then weep when she remembered that not everyone from that night had made it to the end of the battle.

* * *

The next day, after everyone(K not included) had nursed their hangovers and gotten some food in their systems, they went over their next moves.

"All right," said Morgan while sipping on some water, "we have just under three weeks before the big bad returns to Goodsprings. Not nearly enough time to assemble an army. But we've been pretty lucky so far. I think just a few more people and we should be good to go. I'm new to the area so anyone have any ideas? Heard of anyone who might be willing help? Tuco? Guys?"

The rest sat around the table with their thinking caps on. It was almost a humorous sight to Morgan. All these hardened individuals, who probably had large body counts under their belts, just sitting around with hard thoughtful expressions on their faces. Almost like kids when they can't figure out a math problem.

"Hold on!" K said suddenly, and turned to Isaac, "Remember Grady? She's a bounty hunter."

Isaac waited a moment, "Yeah, used to be with the NCR. I remember seeing a bunch of medals and what-not on her walls when I was wiring the turrets to her computer."

"Former NCR you said?" Asked Tuco. Perking up a bit

K nodded, "Yeah. She must be pretty good, too."

"What makes you say that?" Asked Sunny.

"Because," Isaac said, crossing his arms with some pride, "she was able to afford us for her security. She must charge a lot per job if she can do that."

"Well," Morgan started, "we should be able to afford her, we did just win a lot of money. But do you think she'd accept a job like this?"

"A lot of NCR types sign up because they want to do some good," said Isaac, "suicide missions might not be that big a deal to her. Plus as expensive as the job was, we did give her a discount, didn't seem right to charge a vet up the ass, you know?" Everyone nodded, but Tuco especially seemed to really approve of this notion. Seeming to look at K and Isaac with more good feelings.

"Where's she live?" Asked Tuco.

"In a shack close to Vault 34." Replied Isaac.

"Where's that?" Asked Morgan.

"Here," said Isaac, grabbing her arm and bring her Pip-boy up on the table, "go to your map."

"Oh shit," cursed Morgan, "this thing is fucked, I have to manually update the map anytime I enter a new state."

"Oh, well here," said Isaac undoing the clasp and taking it off, "I'll fix that. Won't take but a sec." He walked over to his monitor and typed something on the keyboard. He pulled a little device out of the drawer under the counter and plugged it in. Three little beeps later, he unplugged it and handed it to Morgan, "Should be good as new."

Morgan activated it and saw that the map was working again. Telling her where she was and where various merchants, settlements, and other interesting locations could be found. "No fucking way."

Isaac led a finger on the screen, "Ok see here? That's Vault 34, the woman we're talking about is around here." And he pointed slightly north of it.

"Great," she said, she looked a little further down and recognized the name of the Grub and Gulp, "okay," she said standing up and addressing everyone, "So here's what we're going to do," she pointed at Sunny, "Sunny, you're going with K and Isaac to meet this bounty hunter." Sunny, K, and Isaac nodded.

"What are you and I doing?" Asked Tuco.

"I have some stuff stashed past 34 and near Grub and Gulp, in an abandoned shack. Stuff we'll need."

"Oh!" Isaac said suddenly as if he just remembered something," speaking of stuff we'll need," he nudged at Sunny, a mischievous smile on his face, "hey Sunny, ever ridden in a truck before?"

Sunny turned to him and asked out loud, what everyone else was asking with their faces, "You have a truck? That works?"

"Yeah," he said happily," K and I fixed it up and got it working earlier this year."

"I have been next to you longer than that," said Tuco with his hands on his hips, "and I have never once seen this thing."

"We don't keep it here," said K, "we keep it stashed outside the city, surrounded by all sorts of traps and security."

Tuco turned to Morgan, a puppy dog like look on his face, "Pastor, can I-"

"No, Tuco, I need you with me. You can see the truck when they meet up with us after they're done with the bounty hunter." Tuco put his head down in an exaggerated fashion, like a boy having a temper tantrum. "All right," Morgan continued, "anything else?" No one said anything. "All right, let's do this." Cheyenne barked, making everyone but K jump, "Holy shit, I forgot you were here!"

* * *

Sunny's heart was racing, she was unsure if it was fear or excitement or both. She had never gone this fast anywhere in her life, though Isaac insisted it wasn't that fast, only 35 miles an hour, he said. But to her it seemed a lot faster than that, not that she had much to compare it to. She couldn't fathom how K was in the back with nothing to hold her down so calm. Then again, she reminded herself, K wasn't human. Sunny didn't know if she'd ever get used to that. Cheyenne on the other hand was having the time of her life. Her head out the window, mouth open, and tongue dangling out.

Tuco and Morgan had elected to walk or rather, Isaac told them that between them and the stuff in the back, there was no space for everyone so they had to walk to wherever Morgan had stashed her things. They agreed, whether or not the bounty hunter had chosen to come with them, that they would wait an hour before going to the shack Morgan pointed out on her Pip-boy.

"How much further?!" Sunny yelled.

Isaac jumped a bit, "You don't have to yell. Uh, from here?" He paused, thinking it over, "Not much longer. Matter of fact..." he stopped, squinting, "there it is!" Not too far ahead in the distance, there was a shack. "Come on," he said, getting out of the car, "we'll have to walk it from here."

"Wait," Sunny said, "why not just drive up to the shack?"

"Grady doesn't like the noise it makes. We're better off walking. Come on, Cheyenne!" He clapped, and she walked over Sunny to get out of the car.

Sunny, after a couple of failed attempts, managed to open her door and get out, while K jumped off the back. "I'll stay with the truck?" K asked.

"Yeah," Isaac said, rummaging through the back to grab his plasma rifle, "keep an eye out. Anyone comes for the truck or you, drive towards Tuco and Morgan, we'll wait for you to come back." He grabbed it, and stuck a plasma cartridge in it. He turned to K, and gave her shoulder a squeeze, she returned it and nodded. He turned to Sunny, "Let's do this, boss." And they started to walk towards the shack.

Sunny looked at Cheyenne who was dutifully following her, and then back to K, "Cheyenne, stay with the truck. Help her keep it safe." Cheyenne barked affirmatively and headed back to K.

Isaac looked back, and then straight ahead again, "That was nice of you. Good idea for her to have some company out here."

Sunny nodded and looked in his direction, a questioning look on her face, "How did you two meet up anyway? You seem real close."

"Yeah, we are," said Isaac, "love that girl," he smiled, "we met a couple of years back. Actually it was my uncle. He found her wandering the wastes out here, dressed all in black with sunglasses on, she seemed dazed." He shook his head at the memory, "he brought her back to the Old Mormon Fort. One of the doctors recognized what she was, apparently he had spent some time in the Commonwealth. Weird thing, after that we never saw him again. He just vanished. Well, anyway after that my uncle brought her back to our shop. We worked on her for hours. Finally, we found that something had gone wrong with an integral chip. We guessed that she'd had some shoddy work done and now maybe I'm thinking it had something to do with being cut off from The Institute when Morgan blew it up. We fixed it, flipped her back on, and she came back to life like someone had just injected her with Psycho."

"Jesus," said Sunny breathlessly.

"Yeah," he replied, rubbing the back of his head and letting his rifle drop to his side, "we explained what had happened and she got real emotional. Saying that we had cut off her link back to the Institute and thanked us. Not long after, my uncle died. It was his shop, actually, Marv's."

"I'm sorry." Said Sunny, putting her hand on his shoulder.

"Thanks," he said, "anyway, after that we had to learn to live with each other. She found a way to put her skills to use. Over at the fight club. We used her winnings to get better tools and parts and improve our business. We've had a good working deal ever since."

"Wow," said Sunny said, "and before all this, the craziest I had to deal with was some geckos. Oh and that time me, The Courier, and the town fought off some Powder Gangers."

"Wait," said Isaac stopping in his tracks, "you know The Courier?"

Sunny sighed heavily, "Knew The Courier, we're not speaking."

"Oh," he said, paused for a moment and then pressed the issue, "why aren't you speaking?"

"Because," she said irritably, "she turned her back on me and Goodsprings when we're the reason she's alive and running the fucking Mojave in the first place!" She growled and kicked a rock away.

"Shit," Isaac said, sympathizing, "that's rough, I'm sorry."

Sunny sighed again ,"It's fine. Besides," she said looking in his direction, "if she hadn't turned me down, I wouldn't have met any of you guys."

"Well, don't get too mushy on me," he said," we're probably all gonna die... but thanks anyway!" He said with a smile. Sunny smiled back. And then he stopped. "We're here." He said as he motioned in front of him.

In front of them was a simple looking shack with a front yard, closed off by a minimal wooden fence that only came up to their waists. The shack itself wasn't that big. Enough for one person and maybe a guest. Two windows on opposite sides of a door in the middle, and under the windows were two wooden box-like compartments sticking out of the wall. Isaac pointed to them and mouthed the word, "turrets." Sunny nodded in understanding.

Isaac put his rifle down, resting it against the fence. Sunny did the same "Miss Grady!" He shouted while putting his hands in the air, "you home?"

The front door opened so fast and so hard for a second they thought it was a gunshot and ducked instinctively. Sunny reached for her rifle but Isaac shook his head at her. They stood back up to see an older woman standing in front of the door. She looked to be about fifty or so years old, though Isaac and K had never felt the need to ask, as their impression of the woman was that no matter her age, she'd been able to take care of herself. A striking woman. The greying streak that went through her dark hair gave her away as well as added to her intimidating appearance. Everything about her made her look like something out of an old western movie. Her cowboy boots, jeans, brahmin leather vest, dark shirt, black cowboy hat, and repeater rifle. Which she flip cocked and aimed at Sunny and Isaac with a grace and ease that would have made Old World southern belles faint. "Who are you and what are you doing here?" She asked.

Isaac furrowed his brow in confusion, surely she wasn't so old her memory was going? "Uh, Miss Grady, I'm Isaac. K and I worked on your security system."

"Not you dummy!" She said irritably, clearly not enjoying this intrusion on her day, "The adorable one next to you!"

"Adorable?" Sunny said sounding offended.

Isaac ignored it, "Oh! This is Sunny! She'd like to hire you. You are a bounty hunter, right?"

Grady lowered her gun a bit, "Oh, hell," she said, "yes I gun down and bring fools in for caps. But I'm not taking jobs right now. I'm on vacation. You go on, now!" She let her rifle fall to her side and made to go back into her shack.

"Wait!" Sunny yelled desperately, Grady stopped and turned around, rolling her eyes, "We've got a lot of caps, won't you at least hear us out?"

"Yeah!" Said Isaac. "At least let us come in and let me check out the system, make sure it's all running smoothly. We can talk while I do that!"

The older woman grumbled a bit to herself, "Oh fine," she said finally, "you and the cute one can come in. Just gimme a second to turn off the mines and turrets." And she walked inside, leaving the door open.

Sunny and Isaac lowered their hands and bent down to collect their weapons, "Cute? Adorable?" Sunny mumbled.

"To be fair," Isaac began, lifting his weapon, "you are both those things." Sunny shot him an angry look. While Isaac just shrugged, "You do realize your name is actually 'Sunny Smiles' right?" Sunny began to say something, but then just shut her mouth.

"Its off! Come on in!" They heard Grady yell.

"All right, let's do this." Said Isaac.

"Goddammit." He heard Sunny grumble behind him.

The inside of Grady's shack was very much like the outside and the woman herself: simple and practical. With a hint of showmanship. Her bed, her kitchen, her desk with the computer, and her armory were all in what would have been in any other home, the living room. There was one door in the very left corner that Sunny assumed was her bathroom. There was a couch on the right side of the room under a window, and an arm chair on the other side by the other. The desk with the computer was to your right as you entered the room and on the left was a locker with a serious collection of guns and armor. The center of the room had a simple, yet very nice rug that pulled everything together. Next to the sofa was a small kitchen and a table that could seat two people at the most. It was very obvious she had been alone for a long time and had liked it that way. The bed was in the center against the back wall and had a footlocker inside which one would assume had maybe four outfits total. Along the wall next to the bed were some medals from her time in the NCR and even one photograph of her in the NCR Rangers combat armor and hat. Next to a man and smiling.

"Go on," said Grady, "make yourself comfortable." She turned to Isaac, "Ah-ah, not you. You said you'd look at my system. Make sure it's tip top. You do that."

Isaac raised his eyebrows and his hands in defeat. "Yes ma'am." He went to her computer and began typing away. Checking the diagnostics of the equipment.

Grady took her hat off and set it down on a little table next to her couch. She pointed at Sunny as she walked towards another table with some bottles on it, "You, honey," she said, "want a drink?"

She did a double take, unsure she had heard correctly, "Uh Sunny. And no thanks."

"Yeah I know," said Grady, "suit yourself. Isaac," she continued, and looked toward his direction, "I got whiskey and tequila. You want one when you're done?"

"Sure, whiskey," he said while looking through the code on the computer, "I'd take one if I were you, Sunny. She's got good stuff."

Grady looked at Sunny and cocked her head expectantly, a wry smile on her face, "All right, some tequila." Said Sunny.

Grady pointed and winked at Sunny approvingly, "There ya go!" She said. She began to pour each of them a drink. Once she was done, she walked across the room and placed Isaac's on the desk he was sitting at. He waved his hand in a thank you motion. Grady then handed Sunny her tequila, who nodded her thanks, then sat down on the couch at the opposite end, crossing her legs casually. "Okay," she said after taking a sip, "tell me about this job."

"Well," started Sunny, she then downed her glass in one gulp and shuddered, much to Grady's surprise and awe, "it's a long story."

* * *

Some time after Sunny had finished telling Grady the story, Tuco and Morgan were almost to the shack Morgan had described to the others. It was about noon now, and the sun was very high in the sky, the heat bearing down on them. Sweat glistened on their foreheads and if it hadn't been for the water they carried, their thirst would have been unbearable. Tuco had opened his jumpsuit and tied the sleeves around his waist, leaving only a dirty white sleeveless shirt on. Morgan had rolled up her sleeves, but had elected to keep on the vestment. As she had told Tuco, she didn't have a shirt on underneath.

"Oh man," she said, "I don't know how the hell," she took a breath, "you deal with this damn heat."

Tuco shrugged, "Grew up here. Just get used to it." He looked over at her, "It doesn't get this hot in Boston?

She shook her head, "Not like this, "she removed her fedora to wipe her forehead with a rag then replaced it, "I mean it's hot everywhere, the bombs made sure of that, but it's mostly cold over in Boston. Still rains a lot. But not as much as it used to."

Tuco furrowed his brow, slightly confused, "Shouldn't it be raining more? I mean, world's still fucked, but it's getting better little by little, no?"

Morgan looked off to the right, pretending something had caught her attention, she wasn't sure she needed to spring the whole frozen for two-hundred years deal just yet, "No, I meant before the war," she looked back at his confused face, "I read in an Old World book that the weather in Boston used to be really rainy depending on the year."

"Oh, okay." Tuco said, accepting the explanation, "Hey, uh I've been meaning to ask," she turned and looked at him questioningly, he wanted to ask more about The Institute and her connection to it, but he had seen how emotional she had gotten when talking about it to K, so he decided against it, "what's with the religious outfit? I know you ain't ordained."

She laughed ,"What gave it away?"

He smiled, "Your bad language."

She laughed harder at that. Tuco found that he enjoyed her laugh. Some women, especially in Vegas, found a need to make their laughs quieter and give it a tee-hee quality like Pink Hair had, Morgan had no such qualms. Happy to laugh loud and hard. "Well," she said clearing her throat, "I've got people looking for me." Tuco raised an eyebrow, "No one trying to kill me or anything. At least not that many. But people who care about me. People who want me back in the Commonwealth and uh...I don't want them to find me. This," she gestured to the getup, "is not something I would have been seen wearing back in Boston."

Tuco nodded, "So who are these people? And why don't you want them to find you if they don't want to kill you?"

She grimaced a bit, "I uh would rather not talk about it," she looked in his direction, "you know how it is."

"Yeah, I do."

They moved quietly together for the next ten minutes. It wasn't an uncomfortable silence, but an understanding one. They looked around in various directions as they made their way towards the shack, which they were now closing in on. Keeping an eye out for any Wasteland critters or raiders. Morgan had left T with a command that anyone who try to steal it, be killed mercilessly. So far she didn't see any bodies or blood. She took that as a sign that T had remained undisturbed. "All right, there it is." She said pointing at the shack just about fifteen feet ahead. She picked up the pace a little and Tuco followed.

"So what are we picking up?" He said jogging behind her.

"Oh you'll see," she said walking in the doorway, "you're gonna like th-" she and Tuco both stopped dead in their tracks at the sound of a growl inside the shack. Morgan pulled out her gun and aimed it in the direction it had come from. The corner of the room. "Oh shit."

* * *

Grady let a long breath. "Wow," she stood up and grabbed everyone's glasses, which were all empty at this point. Isaac had finished running the diagnostics about halfway through Sunny's story, and like everyone else, had finished two glasses by the time it was done, or three in Sunny's case. Grady filled them all up and passed them out again, each guest nodding a thanks. She sat down and sipped a bit before speaking, "So, some asshole and his goons took over your town and are sucking it dry. When you tried to fight back, they killed some of you including a close friend you've known all your life."She took another sip and continued, "So you went off into the Wasteland with no one but your dog to look for some killers to help you take back this town of yours and kill the asshole who took it?"

"That's about the size of it, yeah." Said Sunny, starting to slur her words a bit. Grady looked towards Isaac who was nodding.

"This guy, Calvera?" Grady said. "He sounds like a bully. If there's one thing I hate in this world it's a Goddamn bully," she emphasized the point by jabbing her finger even with the glass in her hand, she downed a bit more and continued, "I'm in, darlin'. Free of charge."

Isaac nearly choked on his drink, it took every ounce of willpower and some fear of what Grady would do if he got anything on her floor or rug, not to spit any of it out. He gulped it down and began to cough, meanwhile Sunny just sat there mouth open not believing her luck. "God damn, Smiles," Isaac said clearing, "what kind of luck do you have?"

"I have no idea," she said, "but I'm cherishing every bit of it." She downed a bit more of her tequila, "Why are you doing this free of charge? Hating bullies can't be the only reason."

"I'm not gonna be so fucking cheesy and say you've stolen my heart or something," said Grady with a smirk, "but I will say that you are Goddamn earnest! I couldn't say no to you if I tried!" There was a collective buzz in the room now and everyone was feeling it. Grady felt excited and it wasn't just the presence of Sunny. The idea of working with a team again had taken a hold of her, giving her flashbacks of her days back with the NCR. And it felt good to know that she was signing up for something selfless and righteous. The fact that she might die in a hail of gunfire like she had wanted back in her younger days held a little bit of intrigue for her as well. "Regardless of everything else though, do you have any idea how long it's been since I went on a suicide mission? Thought I'd never get the chance again, if anything I should be thanking you."

"Well," said Isaac raising his glass, "if someone had told me signing up for suicide missions involved this much drinking, I'd have signed up for one years ago!"

"I doubt you would have met the age requirements, son." Said Grady while winking at Sunny. Isaac flipped her off while laughing along with them.

"Well," Sunny said standing up, "I appreciate it a lot, Ms. Grady," she paused for a moment, "what's your first name by the way?"

Grady smiled. A heartfelt, genuine, and almost tender smile. As if she wasn't expecting the question but was pleased to have been asked. "Rosemary." She said softly.

And maybe it was the alcohol, Sunny wasn't entirely sure. But before she could do anything stop it, the tiniest hint of a blush crept up on her face.


	5. The Outcast and The Legionary

She tried her best not to make a sound and keep her breathing under control. Her aim steady. It was a super mutant. And it was the most unusual one Morgan and Tuco had ever seen. It was doing something that neither of them had ever seen a super mutant do. It was sleeping. The growling Morgan had thought she heard was in fact snoring. It was sitting in the darkest corner of the room, it's legs spread out, it's hands on it's lap. Morgan noted that it was also wearing clothes. Or at least, the closest thing she had seen them wear that resembled clothes. It wore a large black sack hood over it's face, it covered the creature's shoulders and a bit of it's arms like a poncho to keep out rain. It was all this, plus the fact that her robot was still in one piece and had not attacked, that convinced her not to unload That Gun all over the creature's face.

She turned to Tuco and whispered, "Keep your gun trained on it, but don't fire. I'm gonna try something."

Tuco's eyes widened, "What the hell does that mean?" He asked. "What are you gonna try?"

"Just trust me." She said. She made her way over towards the super mutant, stepping as lightly as possible. Trying not to make any noise until the last possible second. The mutant stirred a little when a floorboard creaked and she had to turn and look at Tuco to warn him against firing. After shoving her hand back insistently a few times, to drive the point home, she kept walking forward. Her heart was thumping hard against her chest, she began to sweat, if she was wrong this was going to get very painful. She got right in front of the super mutant and aimed her gun inches from it's face. "Hey." She said good and loud.

It grunted and stirred a little. A shudder passed through it's whole body and it yawned. It was awake. It raised it's head slowly as it realized that someone was in front of it. It started at Morgan's feet, passing her knees, her waist, and then finally locking on to the gun that was pointed right between it's eyes. It looked up further than that at the mysterious shadow figure holding it. It couldn't make out the face, but it knew the one holding the gun was human. It breathed once and then spoke, "Hello."

Morgan tried to process this as quickly as she could. She had figured it would grunt, or if it did speak, say something about her being a filthy human and how it would eat her. She certainly wasn't expecting a friendly greeting, "Uh hi." She said back.

"Who are you?" The creature asked.

She cocked her head slightly, still not quite believing this, "My name is Morgan. Who are you?"

"Me?"

She nodded.

"Caliban. My name Caliban." He pointed to himself to further accentuate the point.

"Okay, Caliban. What brought you here?" Unknown to her, Tuco was desperately trying to get her attention behind her.

"Nothing," said Happy, "I came here."

Morgan cleared her throat, "Okay, good. But why are you here?"

Caliban looked like he was thinking it over, "I been walking for a long time. By myself. Felt sleepy. Wanted shade. Wanted to nap in dark."

"See that robot over there?" Asked Morgan motioning with her head. Caliban nodded. "Why didn't it attack you?"

"Caliban not know. I not see it when I walk in."

"So... you didn't hit it or try to break it?"

"No, I only wanted sleep."

Morgan had told T to stay put and only attack if it came under attack, lest she come back to find her robot had accidentally killed some unlucky curious kid. Reluctantly and slowly Morgan lowered her gun from his face. If only she had seen the way Tuco had been freaking out behind her. "Where are your brothers?" She asked.

Caliban made a low, angry noise. "Caliban no have brothers. Brothers reject me."

Morgan squatted and got to eye level with him, "Why did they reject you?"

"Brothers only want kill and eat humans. I not want that. Caliban only kill when Caliban have to. Caliban only hurt when he have to."

The idea hit her like a runaway train. "Caliban, would you kill a human, who was hurting another human?"

He made a noise like he was thinking, "It not my business," he said finally, "I only want to live in peace."

Morgan supposed it was too good to be true. She frowned inside, tried to find a way to salvage it. "What if," she said, "you had human friends? And other humans wanted to kill your human friends?"

"I have no human friends." He said with finality.

This had gone from hard to near impossible and Morgan could feel herself getting frustrated, but didn't show it. She decided to try the old fashioned way, "What if humans gave you things. Something you wanted. Would you kill other humans for that?"

He looked at her skeptically, "What kind things?"

"What do you want?"

He thought for a moment. And another. And then several more. Morgan was just about getting impatient when he answered, "Somewhere I can live in peace. Where I don't have to fight. Home."

She smiled, "Caliban. If you promise to help me kill some humans to help other humans, I will find you a home. What do you think about that?"

"Hmm," he thought about it again, then spoke up, "yes. I help you kill humans. You help me find home. Promise."

"I promise." She held her hand out to him. He stared at it for a moment, not entirely sure what he should do. After a moment she waved it off and just nodded at him. He nodded back. "We go soon." She said.

"I sleep," he said, "wake up when you ready." And with that, he put his head down and went back to sleep.

Morgan walked back toward the door and ordered T to follow her outside. Tuco came along with his jaw dropped in disbelief. Morgan couldn't help but smile.

"Did," he began, "d-did you just get us a fucking super mutant?"

"Yes, I fucking did." She said, heavily amused.

"Fuck," he said putting his hands behind his back, then he noticed the robot, "and you have a robot?!"

She was fishing around inside the huge pockets and sacks she had installed on T. Looking for something very specific, when she finally found it, she smiled wide. She threw away her old broken sunglasses and put on some new ones, feeling as cool as ever. "Wait till you see what I got inside the robot."

Not too far away behind a rock, someone was watching them.

* * *

K, Isaac, Sunny, Cheyenne, and Grady arrived about an hour later, with K driving the truck. Sunny and Cheyenne rode up front with K, while Isaac and Grady hung on to the back. Grady had no problem with this as according to her, she had ridden a lot bigger in her NCR days.

Morgan had to take a moment. It had literally been centuries since she'd seen a working automobile. True, this one looked like absolutely no one should be driving it, but to see one working nonetheless, it almost brought a tear to her eye. And had Tuco in a state of complete awe. Almost before he was able to get off the truck completely, Tuco had begun badgering Isaac with questions. Morgan ignored that and went to K, "What happened? I thought he was driving." She said pointing to Isaac.

"Well," K said slightly irritably, "he did drive over to Grady's shack, but genius over there had a few too many drinks with the two ladies and didn't feel safe getting behind the wheel."

"Huh," said Morgan, "that's pretty smart of him, driving drunk is dangerous." She looked around to the woman with the cowboy hat climbing off the back and nodded in her direction, "that our newest recruit?"

"Yeah," said K while turning in her direction, "hey Grady! Come meet the organizer of our suicide mission!" She turned back to Morgan, "She's here because she has a crush on Sunny." She said with a wry smile as she walked back to the truck.

"Really," Morgan said, in disbelief at how amusing she found this, "that's hilarious. But kinda sweet."

Grady walked over with a infectious confidence in her walk, "Pastor outfit, you must be the one putting this whole party together," she put her hand out to Morgan with a smile on her face, "Rosemary Grady, former NCR Ranger, at your service."

Morgan took her hand and gripped it strong, remembering what Nate had told her about military types, "Pastor Morgan, good to meet ya," she said with a smile of her own.

Grady looked impressed, "Ooh, strong grip. I like you, Pastor Morgan," she looked around at the rest, "this is quite an interesting group you've put together. Can't wait to see what we can do."

"Save a town from an asshole, hopefully," Morgan replied, her tone light, she looked over to Sunny who was playing with Cheyenne. "Though I hear it was the shine you took to our young boss that brought you to us."

Rosemary barked a laugh, "This is just like the military, no one can keep a secret. God, I love it!" She clapped once, the woman's enthusiasm making Morgan laugh along with her, "Yeah, that one's a reason." She turned and gestured at Sunny, "I mean, I just couldn't say no to that face. You know what I mean?"

"Actually," Morgan said with all honesty, "I do know what you mean. I couldn't say no to that face either. She's kind of adorable." At this Rosemary began to laugh good and hard.

Sunny by the truck flipped off Morgan, "Fuck you, Pastor! That is not becoming a thing!"

Behind her Isaac yelled, "It already is a thing, Smiles!" To which Sunny responded by walking over and punching him hard in the arm. "Ow! Goddamn, you're stronger than you look!" He said as he rubbed his arm.

"So!" K called out from the truck, "You guys find your stuff? Anything interesting happen while we were at the shack?"

Tuco turned and looked at Morgan with a gaze that said, you tell them. She cleared her throat as she began, "Yeah. Listen up, guys. We found my stash," she said addressing everyone. Everyone stopped what they were doing to listen, "It's all here in the robot," she whistled and T came out, to the sound of Isaac making an awed noise and to everyone but K making disbelieving faces, "and we've got another recruit."

Sunny stood up straighter, "No shit?"

"No shit," replied Morgan.

"Well, where are they?" Sunny asked, excited.

"Well uh, they're inside the shack. But before I call them out," Morgan said taking off her sunglasses to let them know she was serious, "I'm gonna need everyone to put their weapons away."

* * *

To say that Caliban's arrival had caused a commotion would be a massive understatement. First Morgan had everyone put their weapons in the back of the truck, then had them promise that they wouldn't freak out, then assured them that there was nothing to worry about. But when Caliban did appear out of the shack, it went bad. Not as bad as Morgan expected, but bad. First, when he appeared Isaac and Grady shouted a curse simultaneously and loudly, then K got into a fighting stance, Sunny had backed away going for where she had put her varmint rifle, it took both Tuco and Morgan shouting over everyone to shut them up. Morgan realized what a mistake it was not to tell them beforehand. Caliban strangely didn't seem offended by any of this. If anything he looked pleased. It took a few minutes to calm everyone down. All told, the whole debacle lasted about ten minutes. But by the time it was done, everyone had calmed down and Caliban had introduced himself. Then one by one, everyone talked with him a little, to get comfortable. When it was all over Caliban stood alone quietly for a while.

"Strange," Caliban said at one point.

"What's that?" Tuco asked.

"Strange," he said turning to Tuco, "that human not want to kill me as much as brothers do."

"Well," Sunny said, closing in and putting her hand on his arm, he looked down at her surprised, but not reeling back from the touch, "thank you for helping us, Caliban." He simply nodded back.

"Hey, Pastor," Isaac said, motioning her over towards the truck, she followed him over and nodded upwards asking the question, "we have a slight problem."

"What kinda problem?"

Isaac sighed, "Between the truck, the robot, and the Caliban," he said motioning behind him, "we're gonna have some trouble getting back to Goodsprings without someone either shooting at the big guy or trying to take the robot or the truck. It probably wouldn't be too much of a problem, but according to Sunny, we're gonna have a hell of fight coming our way, we're gonna need our ammo."

"Yeah," she said nodding, "dammit. Any ideas?"

"No ideas, only one option." He rubbed the back of his head. "We're gonna have to lay low in the day time, and travel by night. And only a few of us at a time are going to be able to go to settlements or posts for supplies."

"Fuck," Morgan said sharply and under her breath, "Sunny's not gonna like that."

"I don't have enough stealth boys to make us all invisible till we get there, do you?"

"No, I do not."

* * *

They moved under the cover of darkness for two nights, avoiding settlements almost entirely. Not being able to fit everyone on the truck, they developed a shift system. The truck moving slow enough to match everyone's walking speed, K, Isaac, Morgan, and Grady would switch every hour driving and everyone else would switch between who got to sit on parts of the truck. Caliban, being too big, was unable to ever ride the truck, but he didn't mind. Seeing as how he didn't get as tired as quickly as humans did. Cheyenne was the unofficial guard dog 24 hours. Alerting everybody before a Wasteland creature showed up. Another thing everyone took turns with was distracting Sunny. She was anxious to get back to Goodsprings soon. In reality she was grateful, as finding everybody had been a lot easier than she thought it would be. But she did worry about Trudy, Doc Mitchell, hell even Chet, that asshole. Everyone kept each other occupied somehow. K and Morgan talked about the Commonwealth, Isaac and Tuco talked about the truck, Grady got to know Sunny, and just about everyone took turns talking to Caliban. Throughout all of this. No one ever caught on to the person following them.

On the third morning, they arrived to what appeared to be an abandoned farmstead just outside of Vault 19. Only a few hours outside of Goodsprings. They had hoped to get a good night's rest before entering the town the next day. And it was there, that their mysterious stalker had decided to make himself known.

The house itself was two stories, looking like someone had added the second floor recently and rather haphazardly. There was a swing set in front of the house giving the whole thing a creepy quality. The farmstead looked like a crew of raiders gone through it, only the ones dead were raiders. There were nine dead. The bodies displayed outside in front of the farmhouse like a message. Morgan led the way, gun out. Cheyenne by her side sniffing around with Tuco and Grady slightly behind her on her right and left. Sunny and Isaac stayed a little further back by the truck, keeping an eye out for anyone who might come out from the second story, Isaac with his plasma sniper rifle and Sunny with her varmint rifle. K and Caliban approached the house from the sides, K with her sword out, and Caliban with a big piece of wood that had nails in.

The bodies lay strewn upon the ground surrounded by spent ammo, as if the people or person who killed them couldn't be bothered to drag them away. Most were shot, but one had his face beaten in with a weapon neither Grady, Morgan or K could identify. Grady picked up a shell left on the ground and inspected it. "12.7 mm, belongs to one of our shooters."

"What makes you say that?" Asked Morgan.

"The rest of the casings on the ground are tens and nines and one or two shotgun shells. This looks like whoever killed him shot him from afar, then finished him off up close."

"And the one missing his face?" Asked Tuco.

Grady shrugged, "Maybe one of the other people who did this had some weird blunt object."

"Think they might be inside?" Asked Morgan, gesturing with her head towards the front door.

"Guess we'll find out." Said Grady.

Morgan moved towards the door slowly, keeping an eye out for any kind of booby trap or mine. When she didn't see any she put her hand out, intending to open the door. But before her hand reached the doorknob, it began to jiggle. She backed up, signalling at K and Caliban on the sides to be ready. "Come out!" She called, aiming her gun at the door.

It opened. The inside of the house was pitch black. As if whoever had chosen to stay there had covered up all the windows or anything else that would let light in. A lone figure came walking out of the darkness, slowly coming into view. He was an imposing man with dark skin and wore his hair in dreadlocks. He wore an old sleeveless duster, a mask that looked like it was for breathing in toxic environments. A shirt with various pouches and straps, some combat pants, and black boots. He carried a 12.7 mm submachine gun and had what looked like a flag pole on his back with blood on the eagle. His presence was intimidating, giving off an aura that said this was a dangerous man. Morgan found herself unconsciously gripping That Gun even tighter.

"Are there more of you," asked Morgan, "who are you?"

He spoke in a low gravelly voice, it had a sinister quality to it. "I am alone," he said, "and I am Ulysses."

"You killed all these raiders alone?" Morgan asked, though she knew the answer. He looked like he could have done it in his sleep.

"You strike me as a woman who has killed far more by herself. Is it so hard to believe?" His eyes pierced right through her. His gaze was intense, but Morgan refused to look away.

"You're not wrong," she said firmly, she looked around at the house and at the bodies, "do you live here?"

"Here?" He echoed, as if not expecting that particular question, "no. Been tracking you for two nights. Figured you'd stop here for rest. Called it correctly."

"Why have you been tracking us? What do you want?"

"Want?" He said. It didn't seem to register. "Don't want anything. Here because I was sent. Here to join you."

Morgan didn't lower her gun or her guard. None of this was making any sense. "You're here to join us...because someone told you to?"

"Essentially. Yes."

"Who? Who sent you?"

"Another like me. A Courier." He paused and looked directly at Sunny, who almost gasped when he made eye contact. "Your Courier."

She whispered at Isaac to watch her back, he nodded and kept aiming. Sunny went around the truck and made her way closer to Morgan and Ulysses. She stopped just behind Morgan and to her left, "Six," she said. He nodded slowly, "The Courier Six sent you to help us? Help Goodsprings?" He nodded again.

Morgan spoke up, "You don't strike me as someone who goes out of their way to selflessly help others, why did you accept?"

Ulysses turned his head back to Morgan and met her gaze again. "Shouldn't judge others so quickly. True, I'm not here because I want to. Here, because I have to," he looks at Sunny and she almost flinches as his gaze, "Your Courier and I? We have...history."


	6. History

_Several years ago_

Alarms are blaring, the sound of the giants in The Divide waking up. Electricity cracks loud as thunder and arcs like lightning all around her. Steam and smoke make everything look hazy. She is on her knees and screaming, the vision in her left eye is gone and a searing pain travels from there and down her left cheek. Her screams weaving in with sobs. She can feel the blood pouring out of the other wound on her cheekbone. She stops screaming and her hands and breath tremble, the shotgun she's just used to destroy the last of the eyebots has fallen somewhere beneath the catwalk in front of the missiles. She spotted it too late, she had been shooting in one direction and when she turned around it was right next to her face, she instinctively destroyed it. The eyebot exploded right in front of her. The shrapnel tearing through her left cheek and blinding her left eye. She's reaching through her pockets, grabs a stimpack in her shaking hands when she hears him.

"Don't need old world medicine to kill you," Ulysses says. She looks up with her good eye and sees him standing before her. He's holding his gun in his right hand, the big 12.7 mm submachine gun. His gaze pierces through her and somewhere underneath it, she thinks she can see something that resembles pity. He brings the gun up and aims it between her eyes with one hand and something about this whole situation seems darkly familiar. "I will end you," he says, that low, growling, shadow of a voice slithering it's way through her body, "and your history."

She closes her good eye and suddenly she's not in The Divide anymore. She's back in the cemetery outside Goodsprings. Her hands tied together, her heart a whirlwind in her chest. Thinking nothing but that this can't be happening. Benny's words are incoherent between the thumping in her ears and her racing thoughts. He raises his fancy gun and aims it at her, "Truth is," he says, "the game was rigged from the start." He pulls the trigger and the last thing she sees is the flash of the gun.

She's back in The Divide. Her hands clench into fists. She opens her good eye and without even thinking knocks the submachine gun away just as Ulysses pull the trigger, the gun goes off as it clatters into the silo the nukes are coming from. Ulysses stands stll, seemingly in shock, not sure where this came from. The Courier stands and meets his gaze. The fear is gone, replaced by a smoldering rage. It looks like her face is trembling. He throws a punch with his his left hand and she catches it at the wrist, using her other hand to grab him by the throat and forcing him against the guardrail and almost over the edge of the silo. She roars in his face before pulling him back and hip tossing him on to the floor of the catwalk. She holds on to his hand as she stomps on his stomach and chest again and again until one of his ribs cracks. He wrenches his hand away and pulls at her ankle, trying to knock her off balance. It gives him enough time to stand up. He faces her, Courier Six and she stares back defiant. He throws another punch and it connects with her face but she doesn't seem to feel it. She reacts to it, her face moves back, but she doesn't grimace or flinch and she looks him in the eye again. He throws two more that connect but she doesn't seem to register them either. Doesn't make any kind of noise. He punches her one more time in the face and she steps back a little, but still not registering any pain. He grabs her by the back of her neck and rains down punches to her midsection, forcing her backwards, the missiles just to their right. She allows him to do this, doesn't fight back in anyway. He starts to get impatient, for the first time in a long time, raining them down harder and harder. When they get to the stairs, he's tired himself out. He tries to take a breath. He rears back to throw a hard haymaker when suddenly, she spits blood in his eye. He flinches and instinctively moves his hands to his face when suddenly she grabs him by the scruff of his duster and headbutts him hard, so hard his mask cracks a little bit. He sees stars and she grabs him by his hair and hits his forehead against a guardrail once, twice, three times. The clanging sound vibrating through his skull, disorienting him. The fourth time his nose and mask connect with the railing, his nose breaking and mask shattering completely. She grabs a hold of him and tosses him down the stairs. He catches the railing close to the bottom and is just getting up when he sees her going down towards him. He is just making a plan when she delivers a hard kick to his chest forcing him the rest of the way down to the floor.

For a while he just lays there on the floor, trying to catch his breath. The whole time she circles him like a predator waiting to go infor the kill. He takes a breath that cuts like glass, coughs and spits blood, it runs down from his broken nose, his vision is blurry. By the time he stands, he has a hard time staying up, he wavers like a drunk. His vision darkens as he fights to remain conscious. This brings back memories of his time in the Legion. Being decisively beaten when he was still a recruit. She is in front of him again. The entire left side of her face a shadow, or maybe that's just blood. But she doesn't seem to notice, that rage in her eye is calming down. He breathes deep and fast preparing to throw one more hard punch, when she suddenly strikes him in the throat with her palm. He crumples to his knees and his hands go to his throat, he coughs violently and harshly. It feels like there are shard of glass in his throat, he's not sure he'll live much longer. He feels a hand grab his hair and pull his head back, he sees her, standing over him, his hair in her hand and he thinks he is about to die. He welcomes it. He's ready for it. But she won't even let him have that. He sees her fist come down toward his face and he is unconscious before he even hits the ground.

* * *

When he awakes, he isn't in The Divide anymore. There are no harsh winds, no constant radiation, or marked men. He's outside the entrance. Back against a rock and propped up in a sitting position. He forces himself to stand despite the protests of his numerous aches and pains. He looks around and he sees her. She has her back to him. She's staring out into the Mojave Wasteland. Like a conqueror, surveying the land that belongs to her.

He stands up and limps over to her. Why has she let him live? He doesn't ask the question out loud, just let's it hang in the air, thick like a Divide wind.

She doesn't look at him and for a long moment, he thinks she won't answer. When she does, it's in a tone of finality. "You're mine, now."

* * *

 _Today, The Mojave Wasteland_

They don't know this story. Don't need to know it. Just need to know he's there to help them because that's what she asked of him. He's only paused for a moment before he speaks up again.

"She called, I answered," says Ulysses, "much like she did for me. Once." It's all he needs to say.

Morgan lowers her gun a bit, "Sunny? It's up to you."

Sunny eyes him up and down, uneasy with the man, but unable to look away, "If Six says he should come, he should come."

"That settles it, then." Morgan puts her gun away, "Everyone inside. Tonight we plan and rest. Tomorrow, we take back Goodsprings."


	7. Taking Back Goodsprings

The night before, Morgan and the others studied the layout of Goodsprings that Sunny had given them and they laid out a plan. It took several hours, held several arguments, never full blown shouting, just civil disagreements, Ulysses himself excelled at planning out surprise attacks, coming up with several good ideas and ways to box in the enemy. When Grady had asked him about it, he had stated he had experience and that they should leave it at that. Not because he was scared of what they might say, but because The Courier had told him not to for Sunny's sake.

And before going to bed finally they did a weapons check. Everyone gathered outside to take inventory and to make sure nobody's guns or whatever they had would break down on them. T, Morgan's robot and the truck's headlights shined their lights. Everyone turned their's in one by one on two big tables from the house that they had put together. Morgan turned in That Gun and surprised everyone by pulling a silver 45 caliber submachine gun out of her robot's pockets. Even Ulysses had given it something of a sideways glance. "I was a superhero for a bit," no one said a word. "It's a long story, but this thing is reliable."

Tuco turned in his shotgun, much to Grady's dismay. "What?" He had asked.

"Son," she began, "that thing is good for close quarters, but what if they're further away? Tell you what, I got something for ya." She pulled the duffel bag full of weapons she had brought with her out of the back of the truck. She dug around in it for a second before pulling out what looked like a smaller version of a cowboy repeater. "This is one of my babies, and Imma let you have it. Small enough that you can carry it in a holster on your leg, so you can switch between this and the shotty." She handed it to him with care, "I expect it back when we're finished...if we're still alive. Oh, and while I'm at it, got my brush rifle and revolver."

"K?" Morgan said. "You got anything besides that sword?"

"Yeah," K replied, she dug around the back of the truck and fished out a pair of automatic laser pistols, "for when I can't decapitate someone." She gave them each a wiggle and turned them in.

"Caliban?"

"Caliban have all he needs," and set down his board with nails, "bullets not hurt much."

"Fair enough. Isaac?"

He pulled his plasma sniper rifle out of the truck next and put it on the table, "Here's my baby."

Morgan nodded approvingly, "I had one like this back home, damn good for gooifying people." She turned toward Ulysses and just looked at him.

He nodded. "Here," was all he said. Turning in his 12.7 mm submachine gun and his flag pole, Old Glory.

"Patriotic as they come aren't you, big guy?" Grady said, her hands on her hips.

He looked at her, "More than the NCR ever was."

Her expression turned serious, "Hey now-"

Morgan raised a finger, "Ah! I'm gonna stop you both right there. This here." She gestured between the two, "Is something we don't fucking need. Especially not the night before we go in to kill a bunch of assholes and save a town. We're shutting this down, right now. Ulysses?"

He looked between himself, Morgan, and Grady, weighing it out in his head, "You're right, Pastor. This helps no one." He walked around the table and directly towards Grady, who tensed up and put her hand towards her rifle on the table. He stopped, reached into his duster and pulled something out. A small metal chunk and held it out to her. Gesturing for her to take it. Reluctantly, she did.

"What's this?" She asked.

"A token." He replied.

"Of apology?" She asked skeptically

"It is a piece of a mask. A mask belonging to someone you, an NCR Ranger Veteran, should know very well." He waited for her to piece it together.

She inspected it closely, some of the markings and it's finish striking her as familiar, "This looks it belongs to a leg-" and then it hit her, she looked up, eyes wide "this isn't-"

Everyone was watching this, utterly fascinated and in suspense.

Ulysses nodded, if he was pleased, he didn't show it, "The mask of the Monster of the East. Legate Lanius."

"Where did you get this?" She asked, utterly stupefied.

"I was there," he said, "I was there when he died."

She closed her hand around the piece, hard. Making a fist over it. A short shocked breath escaped her. She couldn't believe it. But nothing made her think he was lying. "How did he die?" She needed to know.

He didn't have to make anything up, the truth was far better than any fiction he could have told her. "Not well. After the Battle for Hoover Dam, The Courier called me into action. Getting my assistance in tracking him down. We did. When we did, she challenged him to one on one combat. No firearms. All of his people watching. I have never seen a man so broken and defeated in my life. She broke his mask with a ballistic fist and before she had ever landed the killing blow, he was weeping and begging for a quick death. She did not grant him one."

Grady let out a deep breath she didn't even know she had been holding in. She felt a huge weight fall of her shoulders. She remembered seeing him at The Battle, how he cut his way through so many good soldiers, using them as meatbag shields, or suicide bombers. They'd had to pull out, his forces had just been too much. And The Courier, who she honestly had no idea how to feel about at this point, was too busy taking over the whole of the Mojave to help them out. She patted Ulysses on his big arm. "We're good." She looked around at everyone, now feeling a bit embarrassed. "Uh, I'll be over here." And she walked off into the darkness.

Morgan gave Sunny a look. And gestured with her eyes in Grady's direction. Sunny was going to protest, but then looked down and thought better of it. She nodded and headed off to find her.

"All right," Morgan said somewhat awkwardly, "everyone grab your stuff. Let's get some rest."

* * *

The town of Goodsprings had over 20 of Calvera's troopers watching over it. Making sure it's people stayed scared and in line. The main street was where they spent most of their time, not bothering to keep an eye on the residential areas, they figured the fear kept the people staying at home from doing anything stupid. There were always about a few snipers on the rooftops all over town. But the three favorites seemed to be Chet's General store, Trudy's Mayoral office, and the makeshift belltower of the church. The rest stayed on the ground. Taking turns and shifting every couple of hours between the various stores and official offices. Including the town jail, where one of Calvera's more entrusted enforcers, had set up as his base of operations and declaring himself the sheriff. After he had thrown the previous one in behind bars.

By midday the sun was high in the sky and the seven were ready.

* * *

Morgan and Grady walked into town as if they had owned the place, the older woman going as far as to kiss her hand and pass it to the Goodsprings sign. Almost immediately, Calvera's guards began to take notice. The two spotters in front taking notice of the women and passing the message along to the rest via radio.

Luckily, Isaac had managed to dig up several radios and tweak them in a way so that they could all communicate discreetly. The radios has been secured under their clothes, and a little see through wire worked into them, which connected to small devices they could put in and pull out of their ears without fear of them getting stuck. Isaac had worked on this the whole way back to Goodsprings and had managed to get it working perfectly. With no worries about it picking up any signals outside of theirs or radio interference.

"You seeing this?" Morgan asked discreetly, but looking at Grady to make it seem like they were talking among themselves.

"Yeah, we're seeing it," Isaac said, "we're almost all in position, you got their attention just like we had hoped. But remind me again why we're not using the robot that has a minigun and missile launcher on it?"

"Because," Morgan said through gritted teeth as they made their way towards the Mayor's office. She could feel all the eyes on her, "If there's as many more of them as Sunny says there are, we'll need it for them. Plus I don't want to blow up any buildings with the missiles right now if I can help it. We got this."

"You're the boss," he replied, there was a pause, "all right, looks like we're all in position. Even Sunny. As pissed as she is about it."

Morgan had had a long talk with her in the morning about why she should stay out of the initial attack. Needless to say she was not happy. After much arguing and even some name calling, Grady had come in and explained it to her. This whole thing was her baby, she was technically their boss. Their boss who they needed to keep safe. And that they couldn't watch out for her and kill Calvera's people at the same time. If she died, this whole thing was a bust. It would be her job to get the townspeople onboard with fighting back at the final battle. Reluctantly, Sunny agreed.

"She'll forgive us when we're done here," the 'sheriff' and two other goons were walking out of the town jail to greet them, "enough talk. Let's do this." Morgan and Grady stopped just a few feet away from them. Morgan waved her hand in a half salute, "Hey there, fellas!"

"State your business here and turn in those weapons," the 'sheriff' said, "when you're done, maybe you'll get them back." He finished with a half smile.

"Ooh," Grady started, mock intimidated, "friendly bunch aren't you? Even Vegas doesn't have rules like that. Why do you get to walk around with fancy guns like those?"

The 'sheriff' scoffed, as if he had no time for this, "Because we're the law. We make the rules around here, not you. Now you gonna turn those in or you gonna leave?" One of the other goons, a woman with short hair, spat at the ground.

Morgan looked around, and up on the rooftops, ignoring the goons, aggravating them greatly, "Awful lot guards and high tech equipment for a place like this, guess you Operators had to downgrade a bit after losing your bosses back at Nuka World."

That threw them off balance, "What do you know about that?" The female goon said, gripping her handmade assault rifle a bit harder.

"Hey!" The one with the badge said, beckoning the other goons at the mayor's office to head their way. They dutifully jogged over, leaving the the sniper on the roof alone, bringing the total of guards in front of Morgan and Grady to seven, "Let me handle this," he reached for the gun he had slung around his back.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Morgan said, her tone mocking.

The Badge hesitated, wondering what she had up her sleeve, "Why?"

"Because you just lost your high ground advantages, friend." Morgan said and gestured behind the goons. The goons turned around.

Simultaneously, the snipers on the Mayor's office, Chet's store, and the tower of the church, all fell to the ground. K had killed the first one, Ulysses the second one, and Isaac the third. All revealed themselves. Ulysses stood on top of Chet's store ominously, K jumped off the Mayor's and hit the ground without rolling or flinching, while Isaac fired a warning shot near The Badge's foot, singeing his boot. Goons that were inside the stores and other buildings kept an eye on what was happening. Waiting for the chance to come out.

"And the rest of our friends just showed up to the party," Grady said, a big shit eating grin on her face.

Tuco walked out of the church, special cowboy repeater in his hand and resting on his shoulder. While Caliban walked out from behind the town jail, nail board in hand. The men and women on Calvera's payroll all gasped a little at the sight of the big super mutant in the black hood.

The Badge did not, he was squarely focused on Morgan and Grady, "All right, you assholes," he started, "just what the hell is this about? You here take over, muscle in on our shit? Or you trying to impress the boss into giving you a job? Because this ain't the way to do it."

"Not exactly," Morgan said, her tone no longer humorous, "you see," she said removing her glasses and looking Badge in the eye, "these are good people. Decent people. Something the world is in very short supply of these days. And you merry bunch of fuckwits are bullies. Something the world is in very high supply of these days." She stayed silent just for a moment, to let it all sink in then Morgan replaced her sunglasses, "so we're here to even it out." She put her hand on That Gun, in her side holster.

"Wow," the Badge said, "you rehearse that on the way here, because that was kind of impressive. But, you see," he said stepping closer, feeling the weight of Isaac's plasma sniper even from so far away, "we ain't going nowhere. Do you have any idea who Calvera is? And the hurricane of shit he can unleash on your sorry asses?"

"We don't care. And once we're done here, you're gonna give him a message from me." Morgan said.

Time went still. Silence filled the air. Not even a breeze pushed through town. The civilians hiding in the stores, dreading every second of this. No one breathed or moved a muscle, everyone waiting on everyone else to make the first move. Morgan and Badge stared each other down, each not looking away. Grady darted her eyes side to side, keeping an eye on which of the goons was going to draw first. Isaac breathed in and out, looking through the scope, ready to pull the trigger when he had to. Tuco watched Grady, and followed her eyeline to the gunmen in front of her trying to see which he could take out, after she did. K had one hand on her sword at her back, ready to pull it out, and one hand on an automatic laser pistol. Caliban braced himself for what he thought would be a barrage of bullets, ready to fight his way through the pain. Ulysses began calculating where other troops would come from. He could see a few in some of the windows, he stood ready, submachine gun in hand.

The woman to Badge's left in Grady's field of vision attempted to draw first. She was the first casualty of the day. Grady drew quicker, pulling her revolver from her holster and firing it from the hip, fanning the hammer twice and putting her down with the second bullet. Badge flinched at this and Morgan took the opportunity not to kill him, but disarm him, drawing That Gun and knocking his pistol out of his hand even before it had managed to leave the holster. Badge drew his hand back in pain and gritted his teeth at Morgan. Before his gun could even touch the ground, Morgan put a bullet between the gunman to Badge's left's eyes.

Badge attempted to run back to the jail only to be greeted by an angry super mutant heading his way, without thinking he grabbed the gunman closest to him and threw him into the super mutant's path. Making his way into the jail.

Caliban killed the gunman the cowardly 'sheriff' had thrown his way with a single strike of his nailboard. Directly connecting with the man's head and crushing his skull and brain instantly. The other one behind him fired off a shot with his automatic rifle that missed horribly, giving Caliban enough time to knock him to the ground with his foot and then stab his nail board down the screaming man's throat. He ran off in search of more victims.

There were still two Operators in front of Grady. One managed to get his weapon and aim before a plasma bolt hit him in the back of the neck, getting his head off, leaving a cauterized hole where his skull was. The other was still fumbling with her rifle when Isaac let loose two more plasma bolts at her back area, the second causing her to melt into a pile of green goo as as she screamed. Grady looked up at him and nodded a thanks before pulling her Brush rifle from her back and readying for more.

Ulysses from his roof top spotted three Operators coming from the stores across the street from his rooftop near Morgan. His gun was aimed before they exited and unleashed his automatic fire on all of them as they ran out. Piling on top of each other almost neatly. He jumped off the rooftop and rolled to the ground ready to fight alongside the others. He landed near Grady's left. She fired twice behind him and when he turned, saw two Operators dead. He locked eyes with her, in silent understanding. He nodded and they stood back to back, watching out for more gunners.

Tuco ran towards the building to his right and K's left next to the Mayor's office as Operators fired at him through the window. He managed to kill one, before rolling into cover underneath it. He saw K run to her right heading towards the other building's door, sword in hand. Tuco put the small repeater in his leg holster and grabbed his shotgun. Staying under their line of fire he headed to the door, intent on making it inside. A gunman ran through and met only the force of Tuco's shotgun, falling down dead. He stood at the doorway as people inside fired, once they stopped he rolled inside, barely being missed and landed in a kneeling position. He fired, killing one Operator. The other was in the middle of reloading when Tuco blasted his head apart.

Outside, K charged at a woman with an assault rifle coming out of the building and buried the sword in her stomach. The woman screamed. K was about to pull it out when she noticed two gunmen inside through the windows. She held the woman up with her sword and used her as a human shield as the two gunmen unloaded their guns in K's direction. K pulled her laser pistol and still using the woman for cover, fired back. Not hitting either of them but creating enough time for her to move. She let her shield fall and jumped through the window. She rolled forward and used the momentum to stab the first man she landed in front of. She grabbed his assault rifle and with one hand used it to fire at the other gunman while he was still paralyzed with shock, while pulling her sword from the first one's body. Another one was coming down the stairs, and she managed to fire off the very last bullet at his head. He came tumbling the rest of the way down.

Morgan ran into the whorehouse next to the jail, gunning down an Operator as she walked through the door. She instinctively aimed her gun at the man at the counter. Several of the workers screamed. He put his hands up, "Don't shoot!" He shouted.

"Are there anymore inside?" Morgan asked.

"Yes, three, no four! Upstairs."

She made for the stairs, one was at the top already waiting. He fired down at her twice. One missed. The other hit on the shoulder, she flinched but no blood came out. The man looked at his gun then back at her, "You got the-" she fired before he finished, hitting him in the heart. He fell backwards into the hallway and crumpled to the ground.

"Yup," she said, scratching at the ballistic fiber left somewhat visible under her clothes. She put her pistol away and unslung her Silver submachine gun. She reached the top of the stairs and there were two more gunners waiting for her. She let loose with Silver killing them both. She turned towards the end of the hallway and saw one more gunman holding a woman hostage. She raised her gun and aimed, "Don't do it to yourself," She said.

"I'll do it! I swear, I'll-" his brains exploded on the wall behind him.

Outside Caliban charged into the building next to the general store. From the outside, all you heard were gunfire and screams, then suddenly two dead Operators flew through a window.

Grady and Ulysses separated and ran towards other stores.

Grady stormed into the Saloon and dropped two more as soon as she entered. Gut shotting one and head shotting the other.

Ulysses stormed into the barbershop and killed a man running at him with a straight razor. The other attempted to surrender. He didn't allow it.

An Operator sprinted out of the Mayor's office, trying desperately to make a run for it. He nearly ran into K who was ready to stab him, when three plasma bolts turned him into goo. She looked up at the tower and smiled at Isaac while flipping him off at the same time. He returned it and surveyed the area for more.

Morgan stepped out of the whorehouse reloading That Gun. The street quiet now. She tapped her earpiece, "How we doing, everyone? Sound off."

"Tuco, clear."

"K, clear."

"Isaac, clear."

"Grady, clear."

"Caliban, here."

"Ulysses, clear."

"All right, everyone outside the jail, there's one more inside."

The seven gathered around the jail. Their guns pointed at it, except for Caliban, who simply stood looking terrifying. Awaiting the final Operator. After a moment, he came out, hands in the air. "Just what the hell have you done?!" He shouted.

"I think the results speak for themselves, don't you, genius?" Said Grady, a big smile on her face.

"Go back to your boss," Morgan said evenly. "let him know we're here and we're waiting for his cowardly ass. And you can quote me on that."

Badge put his hands down, holding his bloody one, "Oh, I will. And when he comes, I'll be here with him. I'll remember your face!" He said directly in front of hers. She punched him good and hard, sending him to the floor.

He sat up, his nose broken, face a bloody mess, "Fuck!" A bullet landed right next to him causing him to jump, "All right, enough already!"

"You can quote me on that, too. Now beat it."

Badge scrambled to his feet and ran off.

The seven stood in the street for a while, waiting for someone to come out. For several minutes no one did. "You know," said Isaac, slinging his rifle around his back, "considering what we just did, I was kind of expecting a big damn heroes kinda welcome."

"People rarely get thanks for doing the right thing," said Morgan.

"Especially. For doing the right thing," added Tuco.

Grady fished something out of her backpocket, "Y'all are making me depressed," she said dryly, and put a small whiskey bottle to her lips and swallowed, then she passed it to Morgan, who was standing next to her, "there's your hero's welcome."

Morgan took the bottle and scoffed, "Cheers." And she took a swig, shaking her head afterwards from the burn.

They stood that way for a while passing the bottle, taking a drink, and passing it to the next person until everyone but Ulysses and Caliban, who refused, had some.


End file.
